Health Innovation for Everyone

Differences in access to health innovations have always existed. Market forces and government engagement have not been great enough to ensure that these innovative goods are made accessible when and where they are needed most particularly in the developing countries. Nor have they been strong enough to ensure the pipeline of new products better suited for those countries where the need is greatest. The global community had, in many ways, comfortably relegated the research and development of new products to the pharmaceutical and health technology industry, and the responsibility of ensuring access to international and multilateral organisations.

A convergence of several factors in the late 20th century, however, has changed the paradigm and contributed to a series of new and exciting innovations in health that could not have been imagined just 30 years ago. The factors that converged were in part stimulated by an international commission and report on macroeconomics and health in 2001 that clearly showed, with supporting evidence, that investment in making populations healthy could lead to more rapid and sustainable economic development than could economic development unaccompanied by concerns for human health. 

As a result, there is an urgent need to continue to invest in health innovations to ensure healthy nations and sustainable economies across the globe. The G20 Health and Development Partnership aims to ensure that the G20 countries are coordinating their health innovation strategy to tackle the growing burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases globally.