Alternative R&D models

Definition

Indus­try often argues that intel­lec­tual prop­erty monop­o­lies and reliance on high prices are nec­es­sary to incen­tivize the research and devel­op­ment of novel health prod­ucts. Some gov­ern­ments and other stake­hold­ers often echo these claims. These argu­ments are typ­i­cally raised to jus­tify research and devel­op­ment mod­els where the result­ing health prod­ucts, includ­ing tech­nolo­gies for the diag­nos­tics, pre­ven­tion and treat­ment of HIV, are unavail­able or inac­ces­si­ble to many of those who need them. Con­trary to these claims, how­ever, alter­na­tive research and devel­op­ment incen­tives mod­els have been explored and imple­mented to encour­age the devel­op­ment of health prod­ucts.

Alter­na­tive R&D mod­els is a broad term used in the Lan­guage Com­pendium to refer to all alter­na­tive mod­els for encour­ag­ing research and devel­op­ment that depart from a reliance on exclu­sive intel­lec­tual prop­erty rights and high prices. These alter­na­tive R&D mod­els include mod­els based on the prin­ci­ple of delink­ing fund­ing of R&D from prod­uct prices.

Precedents

2022 HRC Res­o­lu­tion on access to medicines, vaccines and other health products

• “Rec­og­niz­ing the need to appro­pri­ately address chal­lenges, gaps, mar­ket fail­ures and oppor­tu­ni­ties regard­ing the research and devel­op­ment of health tech­nolo­gies, avail­abil­ity and afford­abil­ity to treat, inter alia, rare and neglected dis­eases, as well as infec­tious dis­eases, and to respond to the growth of emerg­ing chal­lenges, such as antimi­cro­bial resis­tance and pathogens with pan­demic poten­tial, among oth­ers, with a view to ade­quately address­ing pub­lic health needs and pro­tect­ing, respect­ing and ful­fill­ing human rights, and tak­ing into account the neces­sity to pro­mote frame­works that meet pub­lic health needs, while ade­quately reward­ing inno­va­tion” (p. 5)

• “Reit­er­ates the call upon States to con­tinue to col­lab­o­rate, as appro­pri­ate, on mod­els and approaches that sup­port the delink­age of the cost of new research and devel­op­ment from the prices of med­i­cines, vac­cines and diag­nos­tics for dis­eases that pre­dom­i­nantly affect devel­op­ing coun­tries, includ­ing emerg­ing and neglected trop­i­cal dis­eases, so as to ensure their sus­tained acces­si­bil­ity, afford­abil­ity and avail­abil­ity and to ensure access to treat­ment for all those in need” (p. 7)

• “Urges all States, United Nations agen­cies, funds and pro­grammes, and rel­e­vant inter­gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions, espe­cially the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion, within their respec­tive man­dates, and encour­ages non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions and rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers, includ­ing phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies, to pro­mote inno­v­a­tive research and devel­op­ment to address health needs in devel­op­ing coun­tries, includ­ing access to safe, effec­tive, qual­ity and afford­able med­i­cines and vac­cines, in par­tic­u­lar with regard to dis­eases dis­pro­por­tion­ately affect­ing devel­op­ing coun­tries, and the chal­lenges aris­ing from the grow­ing bur­den of non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases, while tak­ing into account the Global Strat­egy and Plan of Action on Pub­lic Health, Inno­va­tion and Intel­lec­tual Prop­erty of the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion” (p. 9)

2021 HRC Res­o­lu­tion on ensuring equitable, affordable, timely and universal access for all countries to vaccines in response to COVID-19

• “Reit­er­ates the call for States to con­tinue to col­lab­o­rate, as appro­pri­ate, on mod­els and approaches that sup­port the delink­ing of the cost of new research and devel­op­ment from the prices of med­i­cines, vac­cines and diag­nos­tics for dis­eases, to ensure their sus­tained acces­si­bil­ity, afford­abil­ity and avail­abil­ity and to sup­port access to treat­ment for all those in need” (p. 5)

2019 HRC Resolution on access to medicines and vaccines

• “Reit­er­ates the call upon States to con­tinue to col­lab­o­rate, as appro­pri­ate, on mod­els and approaches that sup­port the delink­age of the cost of new research and devel­op­ment from the prices of med­i­cines, vac­cines and diag­nos­tics for dis­eases that pre­dom­i­nantly affect devel­op­ing coun­tries, includ­ing emerg­ing and neglected trop­i­cal dis­eases, so as to ensure their sus­tained acces­si­bil­ity, afford­abil­ity and avail­abil­ity and to ensure access to treat­ment for all those in need” (p. 4)