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| LETTERS TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2019 | Volume
: 33
| Issue : 1 | Page : 67-68 |
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Bridging the gap in the health research and development activities: Scope of the observatory
Saurabh RamBihariLal Shrivastava1, Prateek Saurabh Shrivastava2
1 Vice Principal Curriculum, Department of Community Medicine, Member of the Medical Education Unit & Institute Research Council, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India
2 Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India
| Date of Web Publication | 14-Oct-2019 |
Correspondence Address:
Saurabh RamBihariLal Shrivastava
3rd Floor, Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Ammapettai Village, Thiruporur - Guduvancherry Main Road, Sembakkam Post, Kancheepuram - 603 108, Tamil Nadu
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/jms.jms_10_18
How to cite this article:
Shrivastava SR, Shrivastava PS. Bridging the gap in the health research and development activities: Scope of the observatory. J Med Soc 2019;33:67-8 |
How to cite this URL:
Shrivastava SR, Shrivastava PS. Bridging the gap in the health research and development activities: Scope of the observatory. J Med Soc [serial online] 2019 [cited 2023 Jun 5];33:67-8. Available from: https://www.jmedsoc.org/text.asp?2019/33/1/67/269100 |
Sir,
The world has been exposed to a wide range of problems, and it is quite difficult to identify the public health priorities, which essentially require more of research activities.[1],[2] Moreover, the extent of investment in health research and development (R&D) activities is still very less.[1] The so-called gap in health R&D got exposed while responding to the 2014 outbreak of Ebola virus disease, and even the minimum investment toward the development of newer antibiotics, once again envisages the importance of the problem.[2],[3]
It is a fact that the national governments, policymakers, and funding agencies are in need of having a clear picture about the existing situation so that R and D gaps can be identified and hence the available funds and resources can be used most effectively.[1],[2] Further, despite spending billions of dollars on R&D activities into different activities in the health sector, the real problem is that the manner in which the available funds are spent is often not in proportion to the global needs of the general population.[2] As a result of which, the nations with high levels of poverty and significant health needs receive minimal assistance for medical research and for the provision of basic health services.[3]
In order to meet this demand, a worldwide initiative under the name of the Global Observatory on Health Research and Development (or “the Observatory”) was launched with an aim to ascertain health R&D priorities based on the public health needs.[4] The observatory currently aims to obtain evidence about those diseases which are found in both developing and developed nations, but either with a significant number of poor nations or a large number of vulnerabilities in both types of nations; areas in which marketing disappointment has been observed; diseases for which antimicrobial resistance has been reported; and for those infectious diseases which have emerged recently and have a potential to result in major epidemics.[2],[3],[4]
The obtained estimates can be of use to different stakeholders to assess the current trends pertaining to investment in health R&D and products in the pipeline and clinical trials; compare the estimates between different nations or between diseases; track global indicators on health R&D; and encourage discussions toward collection and sharing of R and D data between different nations.[1],[2],[3],[4]
The available global estimates have revealed that the number of health researchers is forty times more in high-income nations than in low-income nations, and that the number of female researchers is very less in developing nations.[2] In addition, it has been observed that only 1% of the overall funding for health R&D is on diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, which actually accounts for close to 13% of the global disease load.[2],[3] Further, an increase of 4% investment in the area of neglected tropical diseases has been reported between 2015 and 2016, and both public and private sectors have contributed toward the same.[2],[5]
To conclude, the observatory plays a crucial role in providing adequate evidence to streamline and increase the investment in R&D activities for the development of medicines and vaccines, and thus assist in the accomplishment of universal health coverage.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Shrivastava SR, Shrivastava PS, Ramasamy J. Reinforcing the need to invest in health related research and development activities. MAMC J Med Sci 2017;3:108-9.  [Full text] |
| 2. | |
| 3. | Shrivastava SR, Shrivastava PS, Ramasamy J. Strengthening research and development activities to effectively contain the epidemics of infectious diseases: World Health Organization. Ann Trop Med Public Health 2017;10:499-500. [Full text] |
| 4. | |
| 5. | Shrivastava SR, Shrivastava PS, Ramasamy J. Dearth in research and development of health products for responding to neglected diseases: An urgent public health need. Ann Trop Med Public Health 2016;9:366-7. [Full text] |
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