Public-private partnerships vital to advance Ebola treatment pipeline, says analyst

In the battle against Ebola, incentives from governments and health care policymakers have been and will continue to be vital for advancing the current treatment pipeline, by mitigating the risk and up-front costs from pharmaceutical companies, says an analyst with research and consulting firm GlobalData.

Daian Cheng, GlobalData’s analyst covering infectious diseases, states that, despite a clear need for novel therapeutic approaches to combat Ebola, the infection has not represented an attractive investment for pharmaceutical companies due to its low incidence and the occurrence of outbreaks in countries that cannot afford expensive medicines.

Dr Cheng says: “These two factors drastically reduce the ability of drug developers to recoup their research and development (R&D) costs. So far, clinical-stage experimental treatments for Ebola have all been advanced, at least in part, with the financial support of public entities, and the contribution of public resources to R&D has only increased as fears of the virus have spread.”