Journal Club Articles

Our first journal club will be this Thursday at 6pm in the Bryan Lounge (123) of the Reitz Union. Come for lively discussion about barriers to R&D for neglected diseases over pizza.

Drugs for neglected diseases: a failure of the market and a public health failure?
Enter doi:10.1046/j.1365-3156.2001.00803.x
~Trouiller, Tropical Medicine & International Health, Vol 6, Pg 945
“Infectious diseases cause the suffering of hundreds of millions of people, especially in tropical and subtropical areas… New and creative strategies involving both the public and the private sector are needed to ensure that affordable medicines for today’s neglected diseases are developed.”

Perspectives on stimulating industrial research and development for neglected infectious diseases
~Webber, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Vol 79, Pg 735
“The most important economic barriers to R&D are that the commercial markets are small and that individual purchasing power is severely limited, even though the number of patients may be very large. Since R&D costs for all diseases are high, this means that returns will not cover investments. Various mechanisms have been proposed to address this economic imbalance.”