Health Technology Development for Poor Revitalized

Read "In Brazil, Field Trials To Treat World's Poor: Private Wealth Fuels U.S.-Based Project To Create Crucial Hookworm Vaccine" by Monte Reel in The Washington Post, October 11, 2006.

"(T)he medical ghetto of neglected diseases -- the field concerned with ailments affecting the 2.7 billion people who live on less than $2 a day -- is undergoing a transformation, thanks to an influx of cash from wealthy philanthropists and an emerging development model that promotes public-private partnerships.....

"Although sub-Saharan Africa is generally hit hardest by neglected diseases, Brazil has emerged as an important testing ground for the approach. In addition to the hookworm trial, tests across the country are targeting diseases such as leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis.

"'The idea is to partner with public-sector vaccine manufacturers in what we call innovative developing countries -- places like Brazil that may not perform so well economically but have somehow managed to overachieve in their ability to make health products,' said Peter Hotez, head of microbiology at George Washington University, who is developing the hookworm vaccine in partnership with Brazilian scientists and the Sabin Vaccine Institute in Washington........

"'There's no precedent for this in the contemporary era of science,' said Jeff Bethony, a George Washington University microbiologist who leads the laboratory team in Brazil working on the hookworm trials. 'But interest is really building. People go where there's money: If you build it, they will come.'

"Most of the money poured into neglected disease research in recent years has come from the Gates Foundation, which estimates that it has given about $595 million to the specialty. In addition to the fieldwork, its funds have helped launch a medical journal dedicated to diseases that had gone largely disregarded.

"'The money has transformed the environment surrounding these diseases, and if they suddenly pulled out all of that money, the environment would remain transformed,' said Richard E. Chaisson of Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health, who oversees testing of new tuberculosis medications in Brazil. 'People now view this field completely differently. That's not going to go away.'"