Ian Gust
Professorial Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne.
Marcel Tanner
Director of the Swiss Tropical Institute in Basel.
Yves Champey
Advisor to the Director General of Evry Genopole in France.
Richard Laing
Dr. Richard Laing was a professor of international public health at Boston University School of Public Health before joining WHO in mid 2003 as a medical officer. At WHO, he is responsible for editing the Essential Drugs Monitor and for coordinating training and research related to promoting rational use of drugs in the community. Most recently he was one of the authors of the Priority Medicines for Europe and the World report.
Richard Laing
Medical officer at the World Health Organisation and author of the Priority Medicines for Europe and the World report
Richard Laing points at three key developments in the field of health.
The emergence of chronic diseases in most developing countries, the growth of global funding particularly for HIV, TB and malaria and the decline in innovation in the big pharmaceutical companies are three related issues that people need to pay attention to.
In order to change burden of disease we have to put emphasis on prevention and try to prevent the emergence of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Furthermore, we have to invest in the higher risk research areas.
I am very sceptical of biotechnology, because of the costs of manufacturing biotech therapeutic products. I think for diagnostic biotech products are far more likely to be successful by using biotech products to identify genes or metabolic defects. I think that is an area where they have real promise.