Science must help society, conference hears

A scientific call for action to provide solutions for disease problems in developing countries was the topic of the Merck Sharp and Dohme Lecture at the opening of the first Australian Health and Medical Research Congress in Melbourne this week.

Dr Sally Stansfield, acting director of the Infectious Disease and Vaccines Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, told the audience that it was a challenge to make sure that developments in science and technology were directed to help those in greatest need.

"It's up to us, it's up to global civil society, it's up to scientists, to really make sure that we think globally, that we are able to transcend national boundaries, sectoral boundaries, disciplinary boundaries and really be mindful of the potential application of what we do every day to tackle global problems," Stansfield said.

Noting that 99 per cent of the effort in health and medical research was targeted towards only one per cent of disease, Stansfield said that improvement in health was critical for both economic development and global security.

She said that globally, 5000 people died of malaria every day, and nearly 3 million children died annually from vaccine-preventable diseases.

While more than 1300 new chemical entities were developed as therapeutic products over the last 10 years, Stansfield said that only a handful targeted tropical diseases endemic in developing countries.

"Treatment of these infections produces a 20 to 30 per cent return on investment -- it's not the cost of doing it, it's the cost of not doing it. It's a good investment for these countries and it's a good investment for the globe," she said.

Science provided both the opportunities and the tools to try to avert the daily tragedies of infectious disease in developing countries, she added.

According to Stansfield, international collaboration between scientists forms a key mechanism for addressing global problems like infectious disease. In addition, she advocated the need for incentive schemes to encourage pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to develop and distribute life-saving drugs to developing countries.

"We need to find a way to increase the incentives for drug companies to get the drugs out there, life saving drugs on the market. The drug companies say why bother, why should pharma, why should the biotech industry invest in development of new drugs, new vaccines when systems just can't deliver or won't deliver those interventions?" Stansfield said.

But there was growing recognition of the problem, she said, with big pharma beginning to form joint ventures with local manufacturers and producers, providing both reduced costs and enhanced developing country ownership of disease treatments and products.

The Gates Foundation is also working with the Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO) in the US on identifying obstacles to increased activity and opportunities in developing countries, with a Partnering for Global Health Forum scheduled for early December.

Speaking to Australian Biotechnology News after the lecture, Stansfield said that Australia had a comparative advantage in its close links to South-East Asia and the Pacific.

She said that governments, including Australia's, needed to provide the regulatory, tax and legal structures to increase incentives for using science and technology to address global issues like disease.

"You need to reward the companies and researchers willing to take on global problems," she said.

While Stansfield said that responsibility to shareholders had to be recognised, tax incentives and other incentives like extending life of key patents in return for philanthropic research and development activities were some of the innovative ways that governments could provide encouragement.

Sir Gustav Nossal, who chaired the opening session of the conference, said that the generosity of the Gates foundation extended beyond its willingness to provide funding for third world health to its recognition that partnerships between researchers, drug companies and corporations were vital to solving global health problems.

"Australia should predominantly be looking at what we can do in our patch," he said, noting that Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Indonesia, including Irian Jaya should be priorities for Australian efforts.

Nossal said that he believed that the two most important issues to be tackled initially were vaccines for developing countries and nutrition.

The Gates Foundation has an endowment of more than $US24 billion and has committed more than $US1 billion toward projects focused on the prevention and control of infectious disease. Among other projects, they are a key partner of the Global Alliance of Vaccines and Immunisation, which brings both public and private entities together to focus on increasing children's access to vaccines in developing countries.

The congress is continuing until Friday.