There is a lot of literature about public private partnerships- both globally and from country to country. For the purposes of one blog-friendly reference and important perspective, I am linking here to David Brown's "The portfolio approach to successful product development in global health" (1) which I found published on the website of the Global Forum for Health Research.(2)
In 4 pages, he provides an overview which summarizes key factors in the construction of portfolios addressed to neglected diseases, building and learning from the pharmaceutical industry but also factoring in special circumstances--the focus is on small molecule drugs but key points may be equally applicable to development of vaccines and other products. From the section about the drug R&D process, to learning about the major reasons for project failure, to lessons for portfolio construction and management in public private partnerships targeted at neglected diseases, this is an article I would not miss reading.
The Health Partnerships Review section aims to contribute to the debate about the future role of PDPs.
A bit about the Global Health Forum excerpted from their website:
The ethical imperative of reducing health inequities, of closing the gap between the health of the poorest and those who are better off, demands the utmost collective effort.In the last few years, product development partnerships (PDPs), a form of public-private partnerships (PPPs), have gained growing popularity as mechanisms for increasing access to essential drugs. As a result, an expanded pipeline of candidate drugs and vaccines for clinical trials has been established.The scale of investments now needed to ensure that the best candidates go forward into clinical trials exceeds the funding capacity of any one donor in the public or philanthropic sectors and demands collective efforts. The Global Forum has commissioned experts and practitioners in the PDP field to provide pointers to key areas for urgent attention.
(1)http://www.globalforumhealth.org/filesupld/hpr/articles/HPR_Brown_The_portfolio_approach.pdf
David Brown has over 30 years experience in the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry and since 2005 he has been Senior Advisor and a member of the Executive Team at OneWorldHealth, San Francisco where his work is dedicated to bringing medicines to the poorest of the poor in the world.
(2)On 24 June 1998, the Global Forum for Health Research was established in Geneva. http://www.globalforumhealth.org/Site/001__Who%20we%20are/003__Organization/003__Partners.php Partnerships and collaboration from all sectors are integral to the Global Forum’s 'forum spirit' and to making most impact with limited resources.