Designing Strategies for Neglected Disease Research

Spring 2009

Law 284.26

Public Policy 290, 190

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:35-9:50am

Room 170

Professor Stephen Maurer

302 Goldman School of Public Policy

642-6511

smaurer@berkeley.edu

office hours: Thursdays 10 am - noon

Professor Amy Kapczynski

885 Simon Hall

642-1819

akapczynski@law.berkeley.edu

office hours: Tuesdays 10am - noon

Course Description

Of the 1393 new medicines developed between 1975 and 1999, only 16 were for tuberculosis and tropical diseases. Evidence shows that global R&D is overwhelmingly allocated to the medical needs of those living in wealthy countries. Recently, significant public attention and financial resources have begun to be directed at the rest, the so-called “neglected diseases” (e.g. malaria, dengue fever) that disproportionately afflict the developing world. Even so, funds remain painfully limited. Success will require strategies that are careful, clear-eyed, and evidence-based. This course will introduce students to the neglected disease problem, review the various schemes that observers have proposed to promote R&D, and explore what the fields of law, economics, public policy, business, and public health have to say about each strategy’s strengths and weaknesses.

Class Notes

The students and instructors in this course have prepared notes for most of the lectures. Click here to download a copy. It is important to note that these notes have been prepared for convenience only and have not been reviewed by the various speakers whose presentations are summarized. The instructors are solely responsible for any errors or omissions.

Video Lecture Archive

1A Introduction (AK): Video and Slides.

1B Course Overview: Thinking Through the Problem (SM): Video and Slides.

2A Disease Burden (Prof. Kirk Smith/UC Berkeley): Video and Slides.

2B What Interventions Do We Really Need (Prof. Julia Walsh): Video and Slides.

3A What Do We Know About Drug Discovery (Prof. David B. Ridley/Duke University): Video and Slides.

3B Innovation Economics (Pt.1): "Pull" Mechanisms, Mostly Prizes (SM): Video and Slides.

4A: Innovation Economics (Part 2): "Push" Mechanisms, Mostly Private-Public Partnerships (SM): Video and Slides.

4B: Neglected Parasitic Diseases: Global Health Problems and the Challenge of Drug Development (Prof. James McKerrow/UCSF): Video and Slides.

5A: Access in Neglected Disease Research (AK): Video and Slides.

5B: Prizes and Regulatory Standards. (William Fisher/Harvard) Video.

6A: Access Pricing and the DEFEND Proposal (Keith Maskus/University of Colorado): Video and Slides.

6B: Global Public Health Product Innovation: Theory and Practice (Saul Walker, DFID): Video and Slides.

7A: The Health Impact Fund (Aidan Hollis, Calgary): Video and Slides.

7B. Publicly Financed Clinical Drug Trials (Dean Baker, Center for Economic & Policy Research): Video and Slides.

8A. Advanced Market Commitments (Michael Kremer, Harvard): Video and Slides.

8B. Private-Public Product Development Partnerships: (Surie Moon, Harvard) Video and Slides.

9A. Regulatory Approval (David Kessler, UCB): Video.

10A. Beyond the Ivory Tower: making Practical choices (SM): Video and Slides

11A. Economists Roundtable (Brian Wright (UCB), Suzanne Scotchmer (UCB) & Nisvan Erkal (Melbourne)): Video.

12A. Drug Delivery: The Leaky Pipeline (Julia Walsh, UCB): Video and Slides.

[Coming Soon: Complete Video of All Class Lectures and Slides - Watch This Space!]

Syllabus

To see the current Syllabus, click here.

Wiki

If you are a UCB student enrolled in the Course, click here to reach our class discussion wiki. Other users are welcome to join by permission of the instructor. Please send your requests to .

Resources

All of the assigned readings can be found on the course Syllabus. If you would like to see some additional resources, click here.