Policy Focus

Step up action on poverty-related diseases, says EU science chief

Research into the diseases which exist in the poorest part of the world must lead to more substantial results, the EU’s science and research chief has said.

European research commissioner Janez Potocnik said that while there is great potential to develop research into diseases such as TB, Malaria, and Aids, it is vital to ensure that projects have a measurable, beneficial impact in developing countries.

“More effort is needed to translate efforts into products which will have a substantial impact on global public health,” he said at the start of a two-day high-level conference on research into poverty-related diseases.

“All the stakeholders need to be motivated and become involved…we need to ensure that these diseases get attention,” he added.

The EU invested €450m into research in this area under its sixth framework programme for research, which ended in 2006, and had a total of 80 collaborative projects targeted at the diseases.

The challenge, said Potocnik, is to ensure that developing countries can make use of this knowledge and innovation.

The EU can help developing countries take responsibility for dealing with these diseases, he said, through projects such as the European and developing countries clinical trials partnership (EDCTP).

Given the fragile political and economic circumstances of many developing countries, however, this is easier said than done, he added.

“The EDCPT has had a somewhat turbulent start since it was launched,” he said.

Despite this, he added that the organisation had made substantial progress and was a “shot in the arm” for cooperation between the EU and developing countries.

Research into the social determinants of health, said Tim Evans of the WHO, would also help developing countries to take some responsibility for the social causes of poverty-related diseases.

A WHO report released in August this year said that it is important to determine why, for example, poorer populations are twice as likely to have TB and four times less likely to complete the treatment for the disease.

In an interview the latest issue of the Parliament Magazine, Solomon Nwaka, also from the WHO, supports the idea that helping developing countries to help themselves is essential.

“It would be very useful to encourage these disease-endemic countries to participate,” he says.

“I’m not saying they can do it all...[but] they have to use their existing capacity to start innovating. They have to be part of the equation,” he adds.

Potocnik said that working towards achieving an effective combination of cooperation and research on the problem of poverty-related diseases is extremely important.

“Doing nothing is not an option. It is our duty and a matter of life and death for many people,” he said.