Closing the R&D gap in African health care

This article was written by Raymond De Vré, Emiliano Rial Verde, and Jorge Santos da Silva, and published in June 2010 in the Mc Kinsey Quarterly. It argues that a system governed by Africans in Africa is needed to provide a sustainable funding mechanism that would encourage African scientists to collaborate on common health concerns, share expertise, and build capacity.

Extract:
“The health status of Africans remains far worse than that of people in many other developing regions, to say nothing of Europe and North America. Although a lack of access to health care and serious health system deficiencies are important reasons for this phenomenon, other elements aggravate it. One is insufficient research and development aimed at addressing Africa’s unmet health needs. The result is a lack of efficient therapies for many illnesses that affect that continent almost exclusively and are therefore beyond the scope of most research efforts in the developed world. Consequently, improving the health of Africans implies not only addressing the deficiencies of access and health systems but also stimulating the development of suitable drugs and diagnostics.”

To read the full article:
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Health_Care/Pharmaceuticals/Closing_
the_RD_gap_in_African_health_care_2593#

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