INTRODUCTION Collaboration is one of the defining features of contemporary scientific research, and it is particularly important with regard to neglected diseases that primarily affect developing countries. METHODS The present study has identified publications on leishmaniasis in the Medline database from 1945 to 2010, analyzing them according to bibliometric indicators and statistics from so...

In 2007 the US Congress created the priority review voucher program to encourage the development of drugs for neglected diseases. Under the program, the developer of a drug that treats a neglected disease receives both a faster review of the drug by the Food and Drug Administration and a voucher for a faster review of a different drug. The developer can sell the voucher. We estimated the commer...

The U.S. Congress created the priority review voucher program in 2007 to encourage development of drugs for neglected diseases. Under the voucher program, the developer of a drug for a neglected or rare pediatric disease that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration receives a bonus priority review voucher for another drug. As of 2016, four vouchers have sold for an average price of...

Thanks to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the Vaccine Fund and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the global health community has made enormous progress in providing already existing vaccines to developing countries. However, there still exists a gap to develop vaccines for which there is no market in the Western world, owing to low economic incentives for the privat...

The discovery of drugs is a lengthy, high-risk and expensive business taking at least 12 years and is estimated to cost upwards of US$800 million for each drug to be successfully approved for clinical use. Much of this cost is driven by the late phase clinical trials and therefore the ability to terminate early those projects destined to fail is paramount to prevent unwanted costs and wasted ef...

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) cover a wide range of infections that predominantly aff ect the poorest and most vulnerable individuals. Neglected, but not unknown, these diseases are preventable and treatable. They threaten the lives of more than 1 billion people worldwide, including half a billion children. To take the “neglected“ out of NTDs, public and private partners— including drug co...