Ending Extreme Poverty Requires Continued Investment In Research, Innovation

The Guardian: To end poverty, put science at the heart of development
Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Nick Hurd, parliamentary under secretary of state at the U.K.’s Department for International Development

“…[T]he Department for International Development (DfID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have signed a partnership aimed at using research, technological innovation, and knowledge-sharing to transform the lives of the poorest people. We believe that science should go not only to improving the lives of those who can afford it, but also to those with the greatest need, regardless of where they are. … So why has the need not been met already? In spite of the clear moral and public health rationale for R&D, the profit motive is less clear. The market, on its own, finds it hard enough to invest in high-reward, low-risk ventures, never mind those where the patient is an AIDS orphan or a person with tuberculosis. … [G]overnments and philanthropists of the developed world have a … role to play in correcting market failures that mean the public goods needed most are not being developed. … Through our continued investment in these global public goods, we are confident that we will be able to improve the lives not only of the poorest, but of all of us” (3/16).

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