Investigators: Shiri Mermelstein (PhD researcher), Prof. Hilde Stevens (Promotor), Prof. Mathias Dewatripont (Co-promotor) and Prof. Patrick Legros (Co-promotor)
Abstract:
Access to health technologies for people living in the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is problematic. An increasing number of collaborative initiatives stimulate both research and development (R&D), and access to health technologies in LMICs. This project aims to investigate how collaborative partnerships can be mobilized to ensure affordable access to innovative health technologies. The case of COVID-19 vaccine development will be reviewed to define how various PPPs can be incentivized to foster health system transformation and to address the health challenges in developing countries. In particular, this project sheds a light on the role of Intellectual Property (IP) as a mechanism to promote innovation by providing incentives to invest in (collaborative) R&D, to define pricing models to promote healthcare delivery, to provide access to innovative health technologies and by doing so, to reduce global health disparities.