Yvette Collymore of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative talks to MIM Professor Wen Kilama, AMANET: Managing Trustee, African Malaria Network Trust (host of MIM):

The Product Development Partnership model has seen a number of achievements since they began developing drugs, vaccines, and vector control solutions in 1999. However, from an African perspective, these product development partnerships (PDPs) that receive funding to address neglected diseases create a number of challenges. As I said at a session on PDPs organized by the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative as well as the Medicines for Malaria Venture and the Innovative Vector Control Consortiumm at the MIM conference, the PDP model addresses one disease problem with one approach.

The model does not take a holistic approach to the development of these products. But a product on its own does not solve the problem. You need to go beyond that and make a product accessible. There may be hindrances to do with weak public health systems, lack of political will, poor infrastructure, corruption, traditional norms and beliefs, and prescribing practices. All these issues impinge on access.

Some argue that the PDP model cannot do all things. I agree. At the same time, these PDPs can build good working relations with national and local researchers and scientists instead of relying on so-called CROs (contract research organizations)—small companies perhaps contracted through ads on the Internet who come in, do the job, and leave without contributing whatsoever to local capacity building. They come back, do the same thing, over and over again.

We need to work hand-in-hand with PDPs: plan together, implement together, build up local capacity, so that local researchers can eventually carry on, without much outside input. I do not see PDPs carrying on implementation research, long-term follow-up, for example, of chronic adverse events, or disease rebound effects, pharmacovigilance—following a study population to detect rare adverse events.

Another area of concern is that PDPs are not likely to analyze data inside the country of testing. The issue of data sharing is crucially important, as is that of transferring materials or specimens for analysis abroad. And when results are obtained, they are often not fed back to the country of origin, in order to benefit the national health care system. Local manufacturing and related aspects such as technological transfer are also major concerns. The local researchers and research participants might inadvertently be creating markets for foreign products.