Calls to action

Our analysis shows that over 70% of the net benefit of the past 20 years of investment will be felt between now and 2040.

If this benefit is to be realised, the whole global health sector must work together with a clear focus. We have identified some key recommendations to achieve this.

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Funders and product developers must collaborate to find new mechanisms for investing in R&D.

This would mean more equitable power sharing and resource allocation. Innovative financing models should be explored. Policy should be leveraged to shape investment opportunities and regulatory strategies.


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Invest across a diverse portfolio for greatest returns.

It’s challenging to attribute success in global health R&D, so diversifying across various technologies, product types and research avenues can mitigate risks and maximise impact. It’s also important to continue to coordinate priorities for the R&D agenda.

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Make regulatory and scale up pathways as efficient as possible.

Use data and evidence to inform more streamlined clinical trial and regulatory approaches, to enhance capacity in LMICs, accelerate product approval timelines and to promote access at scale to critical health products. All of these require deeper collaboration across the entire R&D ecosystem, especially in areas prone to market failures.

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Recognise the importance of impact assessment.

A better understanding of the correlation between funding, products and impacts, which we hope to promote with this report, should drive the agenda. We have released a framework of impact indicators which could be used to better demonstrate the impact of challenging product types such as diagnostics or vector control products (VCPs). Using this common framework could unlock investment and accelerate product development.

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Strengthen the collaboration between R&D and access.

Product development efforts need to be aligned with improving access to healthcare, with more synergies between research, development and implementation. Affordability, availability and accessibility should be considered throughout the R&D process.