E-DRUG: Health Product Innovation in Developing Countries
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Dear Colleagues:
Please find attached the announcement of the first volume of Innovation Strategy Today (available for download on www.biodevelopments.org/innovation where you may also subscribe for free to automatically receive future volumes).
[Attachment removed; just go to website and download a low or high resolution version; WB]
The first paper, by Carlos Morel and colleagues, coins a new term, "Innovative Developing Countries" (or IDCs) and calls for the formation of an Initiative for Health Product Innovation in Developing Countries. Its primary mission will be to accelerate the translation of new knowledge into health innovations relevant to the diseases of the poor and to economic growth, taking into account national priorities and sensitivities. The Initiative could promote innovation through programs to (i) support research on health innovation systems; (ii) promote collaboration and coordination among countries to develop, disseminate and implement good practices; and (iii) implement demonstration projects. The concepts were crystallized at a meeting convened by the Rockefeller Foundation at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center, 1013 May 2004. Twenty-three participants attended from Brazil, Canada, France, India, Korea, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the USA.
This landmark paper recognizes that there is a great unmet need for health technologies to address diseases of the poor in developing countries. At the same time, there is a rapidly growing capability to undertake health innovation in many developing countries which have the capacity to develop, manufacture, ensure safety, and market new health products and to develop, test and introduce new health policies or strategies. They are distinguished by their rapidly growing strength in health innovation as illustrated by increasing patenting and publishing activities; increasing investments in technology by both the public and private sectors; rapidly growing number of health technology companies; and health systems able to analyze, evaluate and adopt new practices and technologies. Morel argues that this innovation capability provides an underleveraged opportunity to accelerate the development of new products, policies and strategies for diseases of the poor; hence their proposal. Such an Initiative would help maximize existing and growing investments by developing countries in health research, and complement global efforts to address health disparities and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
The second paper by RA Mashelkar, Director General of the Indian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on nation building through science and technology is an edited version of the 10th Zuckermann lecture at the Royal Society in London. His decades of experiences in India in some ways provides a pragmatic underpinning for the first article. Mashelkar identifies openness as a key component of Indias innovation system: In a developing country context, this means building on reforms that emphasize openness to new ideas, new products, and new investments. Noting that innovation is a many splendored endeavor, he highlights the roles that both low and high technology can play in solving the problems of the poor.
Finally, the telescope shown on the cover and below is that used by Galileo Galilei to determine that the earth revolves around the sun. The drawings are representations by Leonardo da Vinci, among others of rounded mirrors, the basis of modern telescopes. Both Galileo and da Vinci transcend their time because they broke with the disciplinary conventions of their days, pushed the boundaries of science, revolutionized our understanding of the world and our place in it, and shifted humanitys perspective up to the present day. The photograph of the Congolese woman grinding corn is intended to signify that innovation must make a real difference in peoples lives while acknowledging that local cultures around the world are rich with the genius of innovation.
We hope this eJournal will contribute to new insights, knowledge and tools as authors share their creativity and original perspectives.
Anatole Krattiger
BioDevelopments
anatole@bioDevelopments.org