The role of disease-specific research: a developing-country perspective

Over a decade ago, the Commission on Health Research for Development published a pioneering study on the gross imbalance between the world's research funding priorities and global disease burden distribution. This study reported that less than 10% of world resources for health research were being applied to the health problems of developing countries, where 90% of the avoidable burden of ill-health was to be found. What became known as the "10/90 gap" has captured the attention and imagination of those committed to global health equity everywhere, searching for ways to incline the research agenda towards "diseases of the poor".