Daily report – Thursday 19th November

Today’s sessions focused on inter-regional perspectives. Developing countries are facing the challenge of how to incorporate social determinants of disease – such as living conditions and gender equity – into healthcare policies. Today on TropIKA.net, we feature a Q&A with Guillermo Paraje, at the School of Management, Universidad Adolfo Ibañez in Chile. Check our site for the latest news from the meeting, including the question of whether rich countries should compensate poor ones for their brain gain, how lifting the US embargo on Cuba might change public health, and integrating GIS data into health information systems.
Laurie Garrett (see our blog), author and journalist, led off Thursday’s plenary session with a discussion of the need for increased investment in capacity building in the developing world, particularly the training of health care workers. Global health programs lack an exit strategy as all are building with no end point in sight.

Rifat Atun, director of strategy performance and evaluation officer, said that the global community is not innovating enough and needs to make sure that what is invented is used. To do that, we need an “innovation ecosystem” that not only encourages invention but also the adoption of new evidence.

Representing the Institutes of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr Maria Freire, President of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, addressed the participants. In 2008 the Institutes of Medicine decided to make the case to the President of the USA of the importance of investment in global health and what the five main goals of the investment should be. The U.S. should also make good on its commitment to the WHO.

Reynaldo Camaras, Secretary of the Minister of Health of Brazil, said that access to medicines is chiefly attributable to the lack of adequately structured national health systems and the high cost of new medicines. The international community should join Brazil in saying “no more TRIPS plus measures.”

A session on innovation in developing countries looked at how to build a national policy environment conducive to technological innovation. Some developing countries have been able to stimulate innovation to improve health equity without detracting from legitimate economic development goals. Brazil did it by defining integrated actions envisaging the upgrading of the national industry through a program of productive development and a principal role of the ministry of health as leader of the Brazil National Health Research System set by the National Policy on Science, Technology and Innovation for Health. African countries are now trying to stimulate innovation by creating regional networks such as the African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI).

How has Cuba developed its biotechnology hub? Since 1960, basic research and technology in Cuba have been receiving huge investments from the government, which declared the national health system a number one priority. Using a closed cycle strategy, i.e. fully integrated strategy from research to post-marketing follow-up, national collaboration instead of individual competition and coordination between R&D institutions, Cuba achieved remarkable advances in scientific and technological development. Cuba produces and exports vaccines and medicines for many diseases, and achieved this by focusing on the disease rather than the product and on integrated technological packages rather than a single drug or diagnostic.

Our rapporteurs also attended sessions that investigated global investments in health research and innovation; how research can be used to strengthen health systems – a theme running through the conference; whether we need an R&D fund for neglected diseases; and how to achieve global health diplomacy between nations trying to innovate.

Soon we will post in-depth session reports from our rapporteurs that put these issues into context.

As always, we want to know what you think about our coverage of the meeting – are the reports hitting the mark? Would you like to see more interviews with scientists? Leave us a comment to let us know.