The New Neglected Diseases?

Policy Interventions Are Needed to Encourage CNS Drug Development

by Soeren Mattke, Erin Audrey Taylor, Lauren E. Hunter, Andrew W. Mulcahy

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This paper evaluates the causes of the unmet need for investment in drugs targeting central nervous system diseases and discusses policy solutions to better align drug development with untreated disease burden. The authors' analysis suggests that current market forces are stacking the deck against development of drugs for common CNS disorders, as the expected returns on investment are lower and more uncertain than those for, say, targeted cancer drugs. They propose several policy changes that could steer investment into drugs for these "new neglected diseases" by reducing development cost and uncertainty and increasing expected revenue.

The research underlying this paper was conducted in RAND Health, a division of the RAND Corporation.

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