Pharmaceutical Knowledge Commons for the Most Neglected Populations in Global Health

In Pharmaceutical Knowledge Commons for the Most Neglected Populations in Global Health Fraundorfer presents an in-depth study of how the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) has reshaped the global politics of neglected tropical diseases over the past twenty years. By weaving together concepts from different academic disciplines (commons, common goods, orchestration, and healthcare innovation ecosystems) into a novel theoretical framework for the analysis of transformational change in global health, the author argues that DNDi has orchestrated pharmaceutical knowledge commons to produce novel treatments and other knowledge for neglected tropical diseases as common goods.

Focusing on three neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) that have particularly affected neglected populations in the global south - Chagas disease, the leishmaniases, and sleeping sickness - this volume examines the strengths and weaknesses of DNDi's collaborative governance model and illustrates how pharmaceutical knowledge commons help conceptualize processes of innovative transformation in global health to serve the common good.

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) was created in 2003 and developed a not-for-profit approach that would put neglected patients, rather than profits, first. In the past two decades, DNDi has consolidated its alternative pharmaceutical model, showing how to develop novel treatments for a range of neglected tropical diseases and empower R&D (research and development) communities from NTD-endemic countries. Despite these achievements, DNDi's political role in global health has remained underexplored.