9.00

Coffee and Tea

9.15

Session Four – The Implementation of Novel Research Strategies

Chair: Stefan Ecks, University of Edinburgh

What are the practical obstacles to developing and implementing research strategies aimed at more globally equal health outcomes? How can they be overcome?

Prof. Michael Parker, The Ethox Centre, Division of Public Health and Primary Health Care University of Oxford

Dr. Joel Lexchin, School of Health Policy & Management, York University

11.00

Coffee and Tea

11.30

Session Five – Donor groups, the limitations of philanthrocapitalism and the role of the public sector

Chair:Pascale Brudon, Health Action International

What are the unintended adverse effects of the contemporary regime of biomedical research and how can they be reduced? Does the emergence of ‘philanthrocapitalism’ provide solutions, or is it part of the problem?

Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer, Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, MSF

Dr. Nicolas Guilhot, Social Science Research Council, New York

1.15

Lunch

2.30 

Session Six – The Promise of Research

Chair: Johannes Hunger, the Global Fund

What are promising local or global initiatives in the fight against neglected diseases? What are the new methodological strategies and empirical concepts?  What organizational forms care best suited to encouraging such research?

Dr. Charles Gardner, Global Forum For Health Research

Dr. Detlef Niese, Novartis 

4.30

Closing discussion

11.30

Registration (including tea, coffee and buffet lunch)

Brocher Foundation, Hermance, Geneva

12.30

Opening Remarks – Reframing Theoretical and Methodological Priorities

12.45

Session One – The Prioritization of Research

Chair: Malebona Precious Matsoso, Secretariat on Public Health,

Innovation and Intellectual Property, WHO

Is the demand to reorganise biomedical research in order to address the neglected-disease problem normatively justified? Are consumers in the developed world obliged to finance research into diseases that predominantly affect inhabitants in developing regions, and if so, why – for reasons of ethics, self-interest etc.?

Prof. Athar Hussain, Asia Research Centre, London School of Economics

Prof. Dan Brock, Division of Medical Ethics, Harvard Medical School

2.30

Coffee and Tea

2.45

Session Two – The Organization of Research

Chair: TBC

How can research be reorganised such that it focuses on the world’s major causes of disease and death irrespective of the wealth or poverty of those who are at risk? In particular, how can research into neglected diseases be incentivised, and what are effective IP regimes and other methods to assist in this shift in priorities?

Prof. James Robert Brown, Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto

James Love, Knowledge Ecology International

4.30

Coffee and tea

4.45

Session Three – The Evidence-Base of Research

Chair: Sisule F. Musungu, IQsensato

Are current research methodologies likely to generate medical treatments that work in the conditions commonly found in countries affected by neglected diseases? What kinds of interdisciplinary research is likely to be of most use in understanding the causes and the effective treatments of such diseases and how can this be encouraged? How can current research methods be made more suited to the local circumstances in which such diseases need to be combated?

Dr. Ann Kelly, Health Policy Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Dr. Alex Broadbent, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge

6.45

Shuttle to Symposium Dinner, Café Papon