Orphans and incentives: developing technologies to address emerging infections : workshop report

Infectious diseases remain a leading cause of prolonged illness, premature mortality and soaring health costs.

In the United States in 1995, infectious diseases were the third leading cause of death, right behind heart disease and cancer.

Drugs resistance plays an ever increasing role in this area.

This report from a Forum on Emerging Infections Workshop focuses on product areas where market returns may be seen as too small or too complicated by other factors to compete in industrial portfolios with other demands for investment.

Vaccines are quintessential examples of such products.

The lessons learned fall into four areas: what makes intersectoral collaboration in a reality; the notion of the product life cycle; implications of divergent sectoral mandates and concepts of risk; and the roles of the law and public education.;The book includes an annotated inventory of mechanisms for facilitating public/private collaboration and highlights the kinds of incentives that are critical for dealing with infectious diseases.