World Economic Forum white paper on gene therapy
The World Economic Forum has published a white paper on how gene therapy can transform the lives of patients globally. The study shows how low- and middle-income countries can and should play a leading role in developing and delivering some of the world’s most advanced healthcare technologies. Through expert-led analysis of the experiences of five countries, including India, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand and Uganda – each focused on different diseases, the paper sets out a series of key pillars that all countries can build on when designing their own roadmaps to gene therapy capacity building.
These pillars include:
- R&D ecosystems connecting health and social science areas aligned with national and institutional strategic plans
- Health facilities equipped with sophisticated equipment and strategically located to serve patients
- Manufacturing localized to treatment-delivery sites to lower costs and accelerate deployment
- Workforce trained in diverse disciplines and retained across public and private sectors
- Community engagement from the outset to improve accessibility, affordability and acceptability of new medicines
- Policy and regulation converged across HICs and LMICs, promoting work-sharing and reliance, and accelerating clinical trials and commercialization
- Finance using public-private partnerships to ensure all patients have access to effective cures
The white paper indicates that “the inclusion of low- and middle-income countries in the global market for gene therapy will not only benefit millions globally – by helping to bring life-altering treatments to communities carrying the world’s highest disease burdens – but will also ensure that these countries play a central role in the development of tailored solutions to the different challenges they face.”
