[Via Xconomy Seattle]
Biotech, Global Health, Tuberculosis
Luke Timmerman wrote:Movers and shakers in global health-including a lot of people not named Bill & Melinda-will be buzzing around the Seattle waterfront this week for what some people like to call the “Davos” of global health.
Like the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland-another picturesque setting with mountains and water nearby-the Pacific Health Summit is an invitation-only annual conference of about 250 world leaders in science, politics, and business. This year, they are gathering to brainstorm about how to put a dent in one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases: tuberculosis.
The list of power brokers appearing on the docket includes: Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization; Chris Viehbacher, CEO of drug and vaccine giant Sanofi-Aventis; Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and Paul Farmer, founding director of Partners in Health, the famed physician to people in poor countries. Big Pharma will be well-represented by the likes of Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, and others.
The main theme of discussion, TB, rarely captures the attention of the masses, like, say, swine flu does. But it’s at least as worrisome, and it’s not going away. The disease, caused by a bacterial invader that attacks the lungs, is characterized by a chronic cough that makes it especially contagious. There is no vaccine, diagnostics aren’t very accurate, and no new drug has been developed in decades, as Farmer put it in a recent appearance in Seattle. That adds up to a pretty grim outlook for a lot of people. About one in three people on Earth (2 billion cases) are estimated to be infected, and TB kills 1.5 million people a year-ranking it right up there with HIV and malaria as one of the world’s leading killers.
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Seattle is a burgeoning center for global health solutions. These sorts of meetings are nice ways for the leaders to connect and begin to transfer information. Brainstorming will be important in order to fight many of the world’s diseases.
Part of the problem with the real Davos is that it has become a little too distant from real people dealing with real economic problems. That possibility is present here, with lots of great ideas but also few representatives of the actual people dealing with TB. I am excited that they are meeting but worried that the insularity of the meeting prevents needed ideas from bubbling up from the roots.
It is critical that the right people are involved in any brainstorming. Otherwise, the same group of people keep coming up with similar ideas, all the time telling themselves that they are doing a great job while failing to really help. That is a criticism of the World Economic Summit in Davos. I hope it never becomes one of the Pacific Health Summit.
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[...] the Davos of health? June 17, 2009 — Richard I discuss a little bit about the Pacific Health Summit here in Seattle over at my other blog. It hold some interesting possibilities but also some possible problems. Time will [...]