Can Private Money Stop The Slump In Global R&D Funding?

By Suzanne Elvidge, Contributing Writer
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Worldwide, there has been a slowdown, or even a decline, in the growth of public funding for healthcare R&D from public sector agencies and multilateral organizations over the past decade, according to the second Brookings Private Sector Global Health R&D Project from the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings, titled Private Sector Investment in Global Health R&D: Spending Levels, Barriers, and Opportunities.

The decrease in public funding can impact private sector R&D investment, because public funding often provides support for the basic research essential to the innovation that in turn is an investment target for private money. Cutbacks on spending also can have an impact on public/private partnerships. And the impact is going to be the greatest on the drugs for global R&D – the treatments for diseases most prevalent in developing markets.