PHA-Exchange> The 10/90 Report on Health Research 2003-2004: press release

[Claudio]

From: "Dieter Neuvians MD" <neuvians at mweb.co.za>

The full text of the Report is available for download chapter by 
chapter as Adobe PDF files (total ca. 2 MB) from the web site:
http://www.globalforumhealth.org/pages/index.asp
 
Orders can be placed for a printed copy (English only) or CD-
ROM, free of charge. The executive summary is separately avail-
able in English, French and Spanish.
--
PRESS RELEASE
 
A "Quiet Revolution" Is Taking Place in World Health Research
 
Geneva, May 2004 - The Global Forum for Health Research launched 
its fourth report on the state of world health research. 
 
The 10/90 Report on Health Research 2003-2004 reviews the recom-
mendations made since 1990 to help correct the 10/90 gap and the 
actions taken since then. 
 
Less than 10% of the total amount invested globally in health 
R&D - currently estimated at close to US$75 billion - is spent 
on 90% of the world's health problems. 
 
"Sound instruments and methodologies have been developed since 
1990 to identify research priorities which could make the larg-
est contribution to people's health," says Louis Currat, outgo-
ing head of the Global Forum for Health Research, who directed 
the publication. "But large-scale improvement will depend on a 
substantial reallocation of resources from low to high priority 
research."
 
The Global Forum has developed a methodology called the Combined 
Approach Matrix, which allows any funding agency - national or 
global - to determine its health research priorities according 
to the burden of disease. 
 
Stephen Matlin, new Executive Director of the Global Forum, says 
that countries such as India and Pakistan have started to apply 
the matrix to specific diseases and TDR, the Special Programme 
on Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, applied it in 
2000. 
 
"One of the continuing themes of the Global Forum's work is to 
encourage the systematic use of such priority-setting tools by 
policy-makers, research institutions and funders of health re-
search," continues Professor Matlin.
 
Another of the Global Forum's contributions has been to hold an 
international, interdisciplinary Forum on critical issues in 
health research each year since 1998. Forum 8, which will be 
held in Mexico in November 2004, will be conjoined with WHO's 
World Summit on Health Research and will focus on the health re-
search necessary to achieve the Millennium Development Goals 
(MDGs).
 
The Global Forum's 2003-4 report, says Stephen Matlin, leads 
with two strong messages to ministers of finance: health re-
search pays big dividends, and you will need research to meet 
the MDGs. 
 
--
Global Forum for Health Research
mailto:info at globalforumhealth.org
http://www.globalforumhealth.org
 
 
In 2001, the WHO Commission on Macroeconomics and Health calcu-
lated that scaling up essential health interventions in low-
income countries by US$66 billion a year could bring benefits of 
at least US$186 billion a year by 2015-2020. So health invest-
ment brings massive rates of return, of at least a factor of 
three, compared to other investments where returns might be 
typically only 1.2 to 1.5 in very good cases.
 
In his foreword to the report, Richard Feachem, Chair of the 
Foundation Council of the Global Forum for Health Research and 
Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Ma-
laria, says:
"Without a quantum change in health research and a reorientation 
of research towards the key health priorities of the world and 
towards the key challenge of implementation, we will not win the 
war on poverty, we will not reach the MDGs by 2015 and we will 
not succeed in the fight against AIDS, TB and malaria."