Browsing by Author "Barnes-Weise, Julia"

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Open Access
Bipartisanship in the 21st Century Cures Act
(2017-12) Scoufis, Courtney
In the 114th Congress, only 2.7% of introduced bills became laws. During this Congress, the 21st Century Cures Act passed with an overwhelming majority of 392 to 26 in the House and 94 to 5 in the Senate. The purpose of the act was to accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of treatments and cures, which is normally a partisan topic. Little comprehensive work has been done towards understanding the act. Content analysis allowed the exploration of the two questions: did political compromise occur in the act, and if so, what were the main characteristics of political compromise? Political compromise is a method of achieving bipartisanship. This project defined it as agreement over the wording of a section, lack of specific content, the removing of content, and the inclusion of content. Political compromise was identified in three main areas: the bipartisan committees used to develop the ideas for the act, the use of preexisting bills as provisions, and the resolving of disputes. The two characteristics that most strongly allowed for political compromise in this act are strategic planning and experienced leadership. These characteristics can help in the analysis of other bills to understand why they do or do not pass.
Open Access
Drug Development for Neglected Tropical Diseases: DNDi and the Product Development Partnership (PDP) Model
(2016-04-25) Tuttle, Julia
Abstract Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), including leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, sleeping sickness, dengue fever, and schistosomiasis to name a few, are endemic in 149 countries and impact 1.4 billion people- often the most vulnerable groups in the poorest countries (WHO 2016). Unfortunately, many of these diseases have no vaccines to prevent them, nonexistent or incredibly problematic treatments, and limited resources dedicated to monitoring, controlling, and improving the situation of those who are infected. These diseases may impact millions of people, but the affected population is too poor to exert economic sway and attract investment under the current medical research and development system, and a long-standing market failure has left their needs unmet. However, since the turn of the century, the growing humanitarian concern for NTDs has prompted exploration into innovative partnership and financing mechanisms for developing health technologies for these diseases. Product development partnerships (PDPs), such as the Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative (DNDi), have emerged to coordinate new collaborations between private industry, academia, and the public sector. Furthermore, the political landscape around NTDs is changing as exemplified by the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) is endorsing demonstration projects to experiment with "delinkage" principles that aim to separate the innovation market from the price of products and increase affordability and access. These novel approaches to drug development are important case studies in understanding how to best address the market failure around diseases of poverty and offer insight as to what strategies effectively advance the development of innovative health technologies. The lessons learned from the activities of DNDi and other PDPs shed light on how to align the goals of global health with political and economic realities.