Closing the Gap: The Health Impact Fund

To anyone working in global health, the 10-90 gap is a familiar problem. Globally, approximately only 10 percent of spending on health goes towards treating diseases that affect 90 percent of the population. Adding to this disparity is that diseases that contribute most to global rates of morbidity and mortality, such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and diarrheal diseases, disproportionately affect the poor. What we need is more effective and affordable drugs for these diseases, but the current patent system enforced by TRIPS has proven to be a hindrance in this regard.