Creating R&D Incentives for Medicines for Neglected Diseases : An Economic Analysis of Parallel Imports, Patents, and Alternative Mechanisms to Stimulate Pharmaceutical Research

This book is the revised version of a doctoral thesis written at the Graduiertenkolleg Law and Economics at Hamburg University. It addresses the market failure with respect to R&D for medicines for tropical diseases and the lack of access to affordable medicines in poor countries. Tropical diseases, such as malaria or leishmaniasis, are among the main causes of death and disability in developing countries. Medical scholars have since long argued that medicines for those neglected infectious diseases either do not exist at all or badly need improvement. This neglect has two main reasons. First