Creating R&D Incentives for Medicines for Neglected Diseases - An Economic Analysis of Parallel Imports, Patents, and Alternative Mechanisms to Stimulate Pharmaceutical Research

Virtually no research is targeted at developing medicines for tropical diseases as the expected market returns from R&D into these diseases in the private pharmaceuticals sector are too low. Frank Müller-Langer addresses the market failure with respect to R&D for medicines for tropical diseases and the lack of short-term access to affordable medicines in poor countries. The author analyzes additional push and pull mechanisms to stimulate R&D for pharmaceutical products alongside patent protection which may help mitigate the problem of those consumers in poor countries who lack access to affordable medicines. Furthermore, he reasons that a global regime of banning parallel trade from low-income countries to high-income countries is desirable from a developing country's perspective.

Dr. Frank Müller-Langer is a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law and academic coordinator of the International Max Research School for Competition and Innovation in Munich. He obtained his doctorate in economics from Hamburg University in 2008.