Center for Global Health R&D Policy Assessment

The business of developing drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics for neglected disease is complex. Public and private product developers must navigate tough scientific challenges, identify financing options, explore uncertain markets, and establish wide-ranging collaborations to come up with promising technologies.

There’s a lot of buzz about the potential for collaborative approaches to R&D to speed up product development timelines, bring fresh ideas to the table, and cast more attention on diseases of the poor. But what is collaborative R&D exactly? Who’s doing it and why? Is open source the same as crowdsourcing?

The Center recently launched a web-based primer that is a starting point in answering some of these questions and laying out different approaches to collaborative R&D in health.

Hassan Masum is the co-author of the Center’s report “Open Source for Neglected Diseases: Magic Bullet or Mirage?”

This is the eighth in a series of interviews by Hassan Masum of leaders of collaborative health R&D programs.

Hassan Masum is the co-author of the Center’s report “Open Source for Neglected Diseases: Magic Bullet or Mirage?”

This is the seventh in a series of interviews by Hassan Masum of leaders of collaborative health R&D programs.

Hassan Masum is the co-author of the Center’s report “Open Source for Neglected Diseases: Magic Bullet or Mirage?”

This is the sixth in a series of interviews by Hassan Masum of leaders of collaborative health R&D programs.

Hassan Masum is the co-author of the Center’s report “Open Source for Neglected Diseases: Magic Bullet or Mirage?”

This is the fifth in a series of interviews by Hassan Masum of leaders of collaborative health R&D programs.

Hassan Masum is the co-author of the Center’s report Open Source for Neglected Diseases: Magic Bullet or Mirage?”

This is the fourth in a series of interviews by Hassan Masum of leaders of collaborative health R&D programs. This series looks at how collaborative R&D can advance health technologies, and how its success can be gauged.

Hassan Masum is the co-author of the Center’s report “Open Source for Neglected Diseases: Magic Bullet or Mirage?”

This is the third in a series of interviews by Hassan Masum of leaders of collaborative health R&D programs.

Hassan Masum is the co-author of the Center’s report “Open Source for Neglected Diseases: Magic Bullet or Mirage?”

This is the second in a series of interviews by Hassan Masum of leaders of collaborative health R&D programs.

Hassan Masum is the co-author of the Center’s report “Open Source for Neglected Diseases: Magic Bullet or Mirage?”

This is the first in a series of interviews by Hassan Masum of leaders of collaborative health R&D programs.