Historically there has been a lack of investment in the development of diagnostics, drugs and vaccines for poverty-related and other neglected diseases. In the last 15 years increasing investments in research have resulted in over 200 products at various stages of development. A large part of this increase has been due to the establishment of a number of public-private product development partnerships (PDPs) developing a range of technologies for a number of different diseases.<\/p>
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PDPs aim is to accelerate the development of new products and to date they have developed over twenty new products. It has been estimated that there is around a 10% return on investment per annum from medical research. There is insufficient funding available to support the development of all the promising products currently in PDP portfolios and DFID works in partnership with others to encourage greater investment.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1582", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Grant Shapps"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Welwyn Hatfield"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Grant Shapps"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2015-07-06", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2015-07-06T16:04:36.75Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "20"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "International Development"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "International Development"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2015-06-29", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Developing Countries: Diseases"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the efficacy of the research and development pipeline for diagnostics, drugs and vaccines for poverty-related and other neglected diseases.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/95", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mr Andrew Smith"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Oxford East"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Mr Andrew Smith"} ], "uin" : "4502"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/386191", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for International Development"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/386191/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
Most drugs required to treat Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are donated free of charge by pharmaceutical companies. However, in some cases the drugs need to be purchased. In these cases we work to secure good value for money in our procurement and also encourage flexible approaches to increase availability, such as licensing and technology transfer partnerships with low-cost, high-quality generic manufacturers.<\/p>
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DFID also funds research into new NTD treatments through Product Development Partnerships (PDPs). PDPs use patents flexibly to ensure products are available at lowest possible cost. This includes negotiating royalty-free access to patented products and developing products as \u2018open source\u2019 so that anyone can use them, with requirements for distribution at the lowest possible cost. PDPs can also patent new products at an early stage and then use the patent to attract partners to help develop the products and make them available at the lowest possible cost.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1582", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Grant Shapps"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Welwyn Hatfield"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Grant Shapps"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2015-07-02", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2015-07-02T16:22:48.02Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "20"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "International Development"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "International Development"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2015-06-29", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Developing Countries: Tropical Diseases"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the patenting of new drugs on their price and availability to treat neglected tropical diseases overseas.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4432", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Patrick Grady"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Glasgow North"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Patrick Grady"} ], "uin" : "4494"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 2, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }