The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Institute for Global Infectious Disease Research at Rockefeller University is funding a new one-year joint project with The Hastings Center for Bioethics to address the persistent disparities in global access to new medical technologies. Advances in biological science and technology have drastically improved global health metrics, yet the COVID-19 pandemic starkly highlighted that a lack of worldwide access to innovations derived from basic biomedical research can have global repercussions, including for the United States. This project aims to rethink the process of innovation by focusing on early-stage translational research—a critical phase where scientists and investigators are best positioned to shape the norms that guide research and facilitate global availability.
The research team, led by Barry S. Coller of Rockefeller University and Karen J. Maschke of The Hastings Center, is designed to better enable scientists to identify ethical issues, understand when value conflicts arise in the innovation life cycle, and assess the contributions they can make to support global availability. The initial focus will be the development of a toolkit to guide scientists in considering the global impact and accessibility of their work from the very beginning. By intervening at this early stage, the project seeks to prevent delays until a technology is fully developed, when modifications for low- and middle-income countries become significantly more difficult.
