Project: Health Impact Fund Archives

Give to the HIF today and your gift will be doubled

2015-09-04 By ASAP Global

Dr. Theron Pummer, Lecturer in Philosophy and Co-Director of the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs at the University of St. Andrews, is celebrating his birthday by raising money for four highly effective charities working to improve the health of people living in extreme poverty, including Incentives for Global Health (IGH). IGH is sister organization to ASAP, which supports its Health Impact Fund initiative. ASAP President Thomas Pogge has agreed to match donations dollar-for-dollar up to $7,000, and at a discounted rate beyond that. The fundraiser ends at the end of September. As of September 4, Theron had already raised $4,092 towards his $7,000 goal.

This one-time matching gift challenge makes September a great time to donate to IGH. Whether or not you know Theron, you can donate today and have your gift to IGH and other high-impact charities go twice as far.

The other charities that Theron is fundraising for are the Against Malaria Foundation, theSchistosomiasis Control Initiative, and Giving What We Can.

To have your gift to IGH and other high-impact charities doubled, make your contribution by September 31.

Global Health/Global Justice Conference at Ryerson University: Toronto, May 7-8, 2015

2015-03-25 By ASAP Global

Ryerson-University-1

Global Health/Global Justice 2015:

Making New Medicines Accessible to All

Ryerson University, Toronto
May 7, 8:45am–7:00pm: RCC204, Eaton Lecture Theatre (Rogers Communication Ctr)
May 8, 8:30am–7:00pm: Cara Commons (Ted Rogers School of Management)
(Campus map of Ryerson University)
Sign up for this event here

In the last twenty years, extensive and uniform protections of intellectual property rights (IPRs) have been incorporated into the global trading system through initiatives such as the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. Under this IPR regime, the development of new medicines is driven by the reward of high prices facilitated by temporary market exclusivity. While this method of incentivizing research has produced important innovations, it has also engendered unfortunate consequences. When a new medicine is protected from generic competition, its profit-maximizing price inevitably excludes a large proportion of the world’s population, even in affluent countries such as Canada. As a result of this system of incentives, people suffer and die needlessly as the medicines they need are out of their reach, and research is focused on medicines that can be sold at high prices, rather than on those that would lead to the greatest improvements in human health.

Our two-day conference will examine the challenges presented by the IPR regime to improving health and access to medicines in both Canada and beyond. It will also explore methods of meeting these challenges through existing policy initiatives and through a new mechanism for incentivizing pharmaceutical innovation – the Health Impact Fund (HIF).

Funded by governments and other donors, the proposed HIF would support the development and delivery of new medicines through a pay-for-performance mechanism. Any pharmaceutical firm would have the option of registering a new medicine with the HIF, thereby agreeing to provide it at cost anywhere it is needed in exchange for reward payments based on the drug’s actual health impact.

The HIF proposal has inspired a massive body of research on topics as diverse as antibiotic resistance, health ethics, pay-for-performance, and global governance. This conference will provide a venue for sharing key findings from this research with stakeholders in health policy and pharmaceutical innovation, with the ultimate aim of improving policy making, industry practices and public discourse around healthcare quality and access.

More information on the HIF can be found here.

Speakers include (in alphabetical order):

Jaclyn Beca, Manager, Pharmaeconomics Research Unit, Cancer Care Ontario
Solomon Benatar, Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto, and Founding Director of UCT Bioethics Centre
Alyssa Brierley, JD Osgoode Hall Law School, Doctoral Candidate, York University
Y.Y. Chen, SJD Candidate, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
Olivia Chow, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Ryerson University, and former Member of Canada’s Parliament and Toronto City Councillor
Jose Augusto Barreto Filho, Physician, Hospital Sao Lucas and Cardiology Assistant Professor & board Member, Federal University of Sergipe
Brent Fraser, Director, Drug Program Services Branch, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
Julio Frenk, Dean, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University
Yugank Goyal, Associate Professor, Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, Jindal Global University, India
Paul Grootendorst, Director of the Division of Social and Administrative Pharmacy, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto
Nicole Hassoun, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Binghamton University
Steven J. Hoffman, Associate Professor of Law and Director, Global Strategy Lab, University of Ottawa
Aidan Hollis, Professor of Economics, University of Calgary
Jillian Kohler, Associate Professor, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto
Trudo Lemmens, Professor and Scholl Chair in Health Law and Policy, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
Chris MacDonald, Associate Professor, Law and Business, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University
Jocelyn Mackie, Vice President Operations & General Counsel, Grand Challenges Canada
Mathura Mahendren, BHSc Candidate, McMaster University
Stephanie Nixon, Associate Professor, University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Kevin Outterson, Professor of Law, Bioethics and Human Rights, Boston University
Jane Philpott, MP Candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada in the riding of Markham-Stouffville and former Chief of the Department of Family Medicine at Markham Stouffville Hospital
Andrew Pinto, Staff Physician, St. Michael’s Hospital and Assistant Professor, University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine
Thomas Pogge, Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs, Yale University
Mariana Prado, Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
Zain Rizvi, JD Candidate, Yale Law School
Mitu Sengupta, Associate Professor of Politics and Public Administration, Ryerson University
Geeta Sodhi, Director of Swaasthya, India
Lathika Sritharan, Research Coordinator, Global Strategy Lab, University of Ottawa
Jami Taylor, Senior Director, Global Access Policy, Janssen Pharmaceuticals
Alex Wellington, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Ryerson University and Director of Ryerson’s Ethics Network
Greg Zaric, Professor, Ivey Business School, Western University

Student-Led Session on Build-A-Change 2015 Competition

(Organized by Narmeen Haider, McMaster University and Incentives for Global Health)

The conference will also host a student-led session. Build-A-Change is an annual event, founded by Smart Solutions, that brings together students from all disciplines to collaborate and think critically about some of the most pressing global development challenges. This year, Smart Solutions is partnering with Incentives for Global Health (IGH). As the Health Impact Fund (HIF) rewards pharmaceutical firms based on the impact of their products, the HIF depends on the accuracy and reliability of the data used to measure health impact, particularly within developing countries. Students’ in groups of 2-4 are invited to suggest an idea/innovation that will facilitate and encourage accurate, honest, and complete reports by patients and/or health care providers on health outcomes of a specific therapy, while safeguarding patient confidentiality. The winning team, judged by industry experts, will receive a $1000 monetary prize plus mentorship on behalf of IGH. To register and submit your proposals, please visit smartatmac.org. This challenge was made possible thanks to the hard work of: Leandra Galloro (HIF: McMaster Chapter), Gynter Kotrri (Smart Solutions McMaster) and Harkanwal Randhawa (HIF: McMaster Chapter).

Canadian Book Launch of “To Save Humanity”: What Matters Most for a Healthy Future

(edited by Julio Frenk and Steven J. Hoffman and published by Oxford University Press)

The conference will also host the official Canadian launch of a new book to be published by Oxford University Press. “To Save Humanity” is a collection of 96 short, honest essays on what single issue matters most for the future of global health. Authored by the world’s leading voices from science, politics, and social advocacy, this collection is both a primer on the major issues of our time and a blueprint for post-2015 health and development. Contributors include Michelle Bachelet (President of Chile), Michael Bloomberg (former Mayor of New York City), Gro Harlem Brundtland (former PM of Norway), Margaret Chan (WHO Director-General), Bill Clinton (former US President), Paul Farmer (Co-Founder of Partners In Health), Melinda Gates (Co-Chair of Gates Foundation), Elton John (Grammy Award-winning musician), Jim Yong Kim (World Bank President), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Nigeria’s Finance Minister), Michael Porter (Harvard Business School professor), Michel Sidibé (UNAIDS Executive Director), and Larry Summers (former US Treasury Secretary). This unparalleled collection aims to provide illuminating and thought-provoking reading for anyone invested in our collective future. Copies of the book will be available for sale at the conference – which is almost a month before they will reach the shelves of Canadian bookstores on June 1, 2015.

Global Health/Global Justice 2015 Conference Agenda

Day 1: Key Issues in Global Health

Breakfast: 8:45 – 9:15 AM

Opening Remarks: 9:15 – 9:30 AM

Speaker: Mitu Sengupta (Ryerson University)

Session One: 9:30 AM — 12:00 PM

Topic: International Health Equity
Chair/Moderator: Zain Rizvi (Yale Law School)
Speakers:
Yugank Goyal (Jindal Global University)
Nicole Hassoun (Binghamton University)
Lathika Sritharan (University of Ottawa)
Alex Wellington (Ryerson University)

Lunch: 12:00 – 2:00 PM

*Student competition*

Keynote Address: 2:00 – 2:45 PM

Topic: “Making New Medicines Accessible to All – How Can We Get the Health Impact Fund Going?”
Speaker: Thomas Pogge (Yale University)

Spotlight: 2:45 – 3:15 PM

Topic: The Role of the Private Sector in Global Health

Speaker: Jami Taylor (Janssen Pharmaceuticals)

Coffee Break: 3:15 – 3:30 PM

Session Two: 3:30 – 5:00 PM

Topic: “A Conversation with Practitioners of Global Health Justice”
Chair/Moderator: Alyssa Brierley (Osgoode Hall Law School/York University)
Speakers:
Solomon Benatar (University of Toronto / University of Cape Town)
Jocelyn Mackie (Grand Challenges Canada)
Andrew Pinto (St. Michael’s Hospital & University of Toronto)
Geeta Sodhi (Swasthya, India)

Coffee Break: 5:00 – 5:30 PM

Session Three: 5:30 – 7:00 PM

Topic: “Global Health, Local Perspectives”
Chair/Moderator: Chris MacDonald (Ryerson University)
Speakers:
Olivia Chow (former NDP MP/city councilor)
Jane Philpott (Liberal MP Candidate in forthcoming federal election)

Day Two: Focus on Access to Medicines

Breakfast: 8:30 – 9:00 AM

Session Four: 9:00 — 10:30 AM

Topic: Moving Towards a Global Agreement on Antibiotic Resistance
Chair/Moderator: Trudo Lemmens (University of Toronto)
Speakers:
Aidan Hollis (University of Calgary)
Steven J. Hoffman (University of Ottawa)
Jillian Kohler (University of Toronto)
Kevin Outterson (Boston University)

Coffee Break: 10:30 – 11:00 AM

Session Five: 11:00 AM — 12:30 PM

Topic: “Universal Health Coverage”
Chair/Moderator: Stephanie Nixon (University of Toronto)
Speakers:
Y.Y. Chen (University of Toronto)
Jose Augusto Barreto Filho (Federal University of Sergipe, Brazil)
Paul Grootendorst (University of Toronto)

Lunch: 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM

Session Six/Book Launch: 2:00pm – 3:30 PM

Topic: “‘To Save Humanity’: What Matters Most for a Healthy Future?”
Chair/Moderator: Julio Frenk (Harvard University) and Steven J. Hoffman (University of Ottawa)
Speakers:
Mathura Mahendren (McMaster University)
Thomas Pogge (Yale University)
Mariana Prado (University of Toronto)
Zain Rizvi (Yale Law School)

Coffee Break: 3:30 PM – 4:00 PM

Session Seven: 4:00 PM — 5:30 PM

Topic: “Pay for Performance”
Chair/Moderator: Aidan Hollis (University of Calgary)
Speakers:
Jaclyn Beca (Cancer Care Ontario)
Brent Fraser (Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care)
Greg Zaric (Ivey Business School, Western University)

Closing Remarks: 5:30 PM – 6:00 PM

Speaker: Aidan Hollis (University of Calgary)

Reception: 6:15 PM

Hor d’oeuvres & Cash Bar (Cara Commons, TRSM)

Attending this conference is free. However, we ask you to please sign up for this event to help us determine numbers for refreshments and ensure we can email you in the event of any changes.

For more information, please contact Prof. Mitu Sengupta (sengupta@ryerson.ca) or
Mr. Matthew Hughsam (hughsamb@mcmaster.ca).

We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, International Development Research Centre, Ted Rogers School of Management, and the Office of the Vice President of Research & Innovation at Ryerson University.

This event was co-organized by Steven J. Hoffman (University of Ottawa), Aidan Hollis (University of Calgary), Thomas Pogge (Yale University), and Mitu Sengupta (Ryerson University).

“HIF for Education” Explored by Gordon Brown

2014-01-03 By ASAP Global

Reposted from the December 24 newsletter of Incentives for Global Health.

An online educational analogue to the Health Impact Fund is currently being developed by Gordon Brown, the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, to provide free primary secondary, and tertiary education courses that would be universally accessible in developed and developing countries.

Similar to the HIF’s performance-based reimbursement principles, the Global Education Platform would reward educational programs based on impact, measured in terms of education and employability milestones. Performance would be assessed using the accreditation measures of the Brookings Center for Universal Education Learning Metrics Task Force and the OECD’s Programme for the International Assesment of Adult Competencies. IGH has partnered with Gordon Brown, Purpose Capital, and Functional Imperative to pilot the Global Education Platform through a massive open online course (MOOC).

Internship Opportunities with Incentives for Global Health and ASAP UK

2013-11-22 By ASAP Global

Interesting intern positions are available at Incentives for Global Health and ASAP UK. Details on available posts is provided below.

Incentives for Global Health (IGH)’s mission is to increase access to essential medicines through our flagship proposal, the Health Impact Fund (HIF). Millions of people suffer and die each year from neglected diseases because pharmaceutical companies sell their patented drugs at hugely marked-up prices. These companies are incentivized by the international intellectual property system to develop drugs for ailments that affect primarily affluent people who can afford these exorbitant drugs. The Health Impact Fund creates an alternative incentive structure for pharmaceutical companies. When a company registers a new drug with the Health Impact Fund, they agree to sell that drug at production cost (which is typically extremely low) all over the world. Innovators are then awarded a percentage of the fund based on the HIF’s assessment of the actual global health impact of the drug.

As an intern you will play an essential role in the organization of IGH’s activities including drafting proposals, organizing pilots and coordinating weekly calls. You will work with IGH’s impressive management board which includes Thomas Pogge, philosophy professor at Yale and Aidan Hollis, economics professor at the University of Calgary in addition to some of the world’s foremost medical, pharmaceutical and health policy experts. Our advisory board includes former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, former MSF President James Orbinski and several Nobel laureates in addition to over a dozen other global health and economics luminaries.

This is a part time position and you will not need to come into the office. Correspondence will be done by email and Skype calls. This is an incredible opportunity with a great organization. We look forward to your application, which should include a CV and cover email. Please submit your application by December 1st at 5pm. If you have any questions please feel free to get in touch with Narmeen Haider, Manager at IGH, at narmeen.haider@learnlink.mcmaster.ca.

ASAP UK is seeking an intern to develop its social media presence. This is an exciting opportunity for people interested in the relationship between communications, learning, and advocacy to learn online marketing skills. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis, and work begins January 1, 2014.

Key Responsibilities

Producing 1-2 high quality tweets per day
Producing 1-2 high quality Facebook posts per day
Working with ASAP UK to develop a social media strategy

Desired Qualifications and Skills

Excellent writing skills
Prior experience with journalism or marketing
Basic knowledge of academic literature on poverty and development

Learning Outcomes

Improved ability to present academic research to diverse audiences
Greater understanding of social media marketing strategy
Familiarity with key texts in poverty and development literature

Work Sample Required for Application

Applicants should submit a writing sample of 3-5 pages. Excerpts of longer pieces of writing are acceptable. The ideal writing sample would be written in a journalistic, rather than academic, style.

Start date: January 1, 2014

End date: May 1, with the possibility of extension

For additional information, contact Stephanie Eldridge at s-eldridge@hotmail.com.

Academic Impact & Global Health Innovations Showcased at Yale

2013-10-22 By ASAP Global

Global health and academic impact on poverty were the discussed during the second day of Human Rights & Economic Justice: Essential Elements of the Post-MDG Agenda at Yale this Saturday. A global health panel showcased innovative proposals to improve access to healthcare, ranging from proposed reforms to the World Health Organization to a new method for powering vaccine refrigerators. The academic impact-focused panels featured the heads of poverty and global justice research centers around the world and their efforts to influence poverty-alleviation policy and development practice.

Kaveh Khoshnood, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Yale University, chaired the first session, which featured Julian Cockbain, a Ghent-based patent attorney; Steven Hoffman, Assistant Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University; Thomas Pogge, President of ASAP; Harvey Rubin, professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; and Sigrid Sterckx, Professor of Bioethics at Ghent University.

Pogge presented the Health Impact Fund (HIF) as a way to extend access to new medicines to people around the world, regardless of their ability to pay, and announced that in the coming year there would be a pilot of the HIF in India, focusing on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Rubin shared his Energize the Chain (EtC) initiative, which will provide vaccine refrigerators in remote areas using electricity from cell phone towers. Rubin told his audience that more than 2 million people die from vaccine-preventable disease each year, in part because of breaks in the “cold chain” of vaccine refrigerators. In areas where electricity for refrigeration is unavailable, vaccines breakdown and become unusable. He argued that the prevalence of cell phone towers throughout the developing world makes the EtC proposal the best available solution to this problem.

ASAP Board Member Luis Cabrera led the “impact” sessions of the conference, which spanned Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. These sessions were inspired by his Impact: Global Poverty initiative and featured academics who have worked to make an impact on poverty and global justice. To date, Impact: Global Poverty has been a tool to share widely the stories of academics who’ve led successful poverty alleviation efforts, and Cabrera said that he hoped the conference would illuminate new ways in which ASAP could support impact work by academics.

Martha Chen, Lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, spoke about the work of Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), of which she is International Coordinator. In her talk, she argued that there is a strong link between informal employment and poverty and that widespread informal employment is generated by unjust structures in the global production system and urban politics in developing countries. WIEGO has led many successful advocacy campaigns to improve the lives of women working in the informal economy.

Mitu Sengupta, ASAP Board Member and President of ASAP Canada, chaired the first Impact: Global Poverty panel, which focused on impact and the Global South. Teddy Cruz, Co-Director of the Blum Center for Cross-Border Poverty Research and Practice at the University of California-San Diego described public art and urban design projects he had led in an effort to promote social connections and learning across cultural and income differences. Nidhi Sadana Sabharwal, Executive Director of the Indian Insitute for Dalit Studies, described research on the impacts of social exclusion and discrimination in India and the policy agenda that has emerged from that work. Andries du Toit, Director of the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the Western Cape, spoke on the opportunities and challenges presented by the “pro-poor consensus” in South African politics. Juliana Martinez Franzoni, Associate Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Costa Rica, spoke on the merits of universalist social policies as an alternative to narrow anti-poverty programs. According Professor Martinez: “universalism must confront segmentation and marketization” in order to build the cross-class solidarity necessary for achieving social justice.

Amy Gordon, Researcher and Sessional Lecturer in Philosophy at Dominican University College, chaired the panel Impact in Comparative Perspective, which featured Jonathan Morduch, Managing Director of the Financial Access Initiative at New York University; Alberto Minujin, Executive Director of Equity for Children at the New School; and Alberto Cimadamore, Scientific Director of the Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP). Morduch spoke on the dilemmas he’s faced as an academic pursuing poverty impact, especially as his research has focused on microfinance. He told the audience he’d chosen to act as a constructive critic of microfinance, rather than a cheerleader, but that this choice involved significant traeoffs. Minujin described the challenges of defining and measuring poverty and equity for the policy advocacy efforts of Equity for Children. Finally, Cimadamore outlined CROP’s advocacy on the MDG successors and the challenges of influencing public discourse around poverty.

The day concluded with keynotes by Sukhadeo Thorat, Chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, and David Hulme, Executive Director of the Brooks World Poverty Institute at the University of Manchester. Thorat focused on the importance of research for understanding the needs of the different groups living in poverty around the world and of fighting discrimination. During his speech, Hulme gave a critical assessment of the MDGs, saying they had made a “small net contribution but [were] NOT transformational” and that the UN-led process of identifying goals to succeed the MDGs had failed to reshape public attitudes and mobilize the grassroots. However, he expressed optimism about the potential of the post-MDG framework to encompass more of the commitments necessary to end poverty.

You can read about presentations made during the first day of the conference here.

You can also download the conference agenda and program.