Global health public-private partnerships: IAVI, partnerships and capacity building

New developments in biotechnology and the need to overcome the lack of incentive for investment in vaccines for diseases affecting Africa have led to the promotion of product development public-private partnerships (PPP). Our work at the ESRC INNOGEN Research Centre assesses the way in which these collaborative mechanisms approach their mission of getting science to work for the poor and what they contribute to broader development objectives, particularly in relation to capacity building. Case study research of the International AIDS Vaccine initiative (IAVI) and their work on the ground in Africa and India has highlighted two legal related issues. First, by working as a PPP the organisation has changed the 'ownership' of science, making the process more flexible and emphasising a bottom-up dialogue process while advocating a private sector ethos. Second--whether intentionally or not--the partnership's emphasis on advocacy and communications has increased the importance of knowledge generation and management activities within the partnership and its availability to stakeholders. This paper attempts to ascertain the impact of these issues for the building of health research capacity.