The Product Development Partnerships Model

The global health landscape is undergoing profound disruption, while neglected diseases continue to endanger billions of the world’s poor. In response to constrained resources, funders are calling for a transformation of the global health architecture through approaches such as downsizing and mergers. Though these may appear effective, these could undermine the specialized, access-oriented innovation needed to address neglected diseases— areas where incentives are insufficient to drive private sector investment.

Over the past two decades, Product Development Partnerships (PDPs) have contributed to the development and introduction of more than 85 medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, vector control tools, and sexual and reproductive health technologies, benefiting more than 2.4 billion people. These achievements raise important questions about the role PDPs can play within an evolving global health architecture. Key priorities that PDPs operationalize and contribute to include:

• Innovation and comparative advantage: Their Research and Development (R&D) expertise provides a comparative advantage in filling the innovation gap within the changing architecture. Support from donor funding reduces risk and accelerates innovation development.
• Equity, access and country ownership: Working with endemic country leaders in defining products and sustaining gains, PDPs embed access provisions from the outset, ensuring innovations reach populations in need.
• Resilient systems: PDPs contribute to increasing global R&D capacity and strengthening health systems.
• Trusted partnerships: PDPs provide platforms for sustained collaboration across geopolitical and institutional boundaries.

This session will explore the place of PDPs within the evolving global health architecture, highlighting the value of the PDP model in delivering accessible innovations and exploring areas where the model must evolve to respond to the changing realities.