The economic case for scaling up health research and development: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
; 121(26): e2321978121, 2024 Jun 25.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38885387
ABSTRACT
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments directly funded vaccine research and development (R&D), quickly leading to multiple effective vaccines and resulting in enormous health and economic benefits to society. We develop a simple economic model showing this feat could potentially be repeated for other health challenges. Based on inputs from the economic and medical literatures, the model yields estimates of optimal R&D spending on treatments and vaccines for known diseases. Taking a global and societal perspective, we estimate the social benefits of such spending and a corresponding rate of return. Applications to Streptococcus A vaccines and Alzheimer's disease treatments demonstrate the potential of enhanced research and development funding to unlock massive global health and health-related benefits. We estimate that these benefits range from 2 to 60 trillion (2020 US$) and that the corresponding rates of return on R&D spending range from 12% to 23% per year for 30 y. We discuss the current shortfall in R&D spending and public policies that can move current funding closer to the optimal level.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Pandemias
/
COVID-19
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article