Fostering incentives for research, development, and delivery of interventions for neglected tropical diseases: lessons from malaria

Making existing medical technologies accessible and incentivizing the development of new medicines for neglected diseases are major global health policy challenges. Where market incentives are not enough, additional policies and incentives are required to engage the private and public sectors. There have been major advances in tackling global health issues in the last decade with increasing funding for R&D for neglected diseases from high-income countries and from private foundations. Malaria is an illustrative example of both great progress and of continuing challenge. This paper reviews relevant incentives for progress towards malaria control, elimination, and eradication. We describe in depth the most relevant incentives―product development partnerships (PDPs), open source databases (OSDs), priority review vouchers (PRVs), and advance market commitments (AMCs). Finally we evaluate their achievements―existing anti-malarial tools and interventions―and discuss the R&D incentives required to generate further interventions to meet the malaria eradication goal and tackle neglected diseases.