Over the past decade, there has been considerable debate about who is to blame for the lack of research and innovation regarding treatments for the so-called diseases of poverty. Preventable diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis inflict a devastating toll in developing countries, killing millions and restricting economic growth.
 
What should the U.S. government and the World Health Organization be doing to combat poverty-related diseases in the developing world? Are pharmaceutical companies, Western donors, or weak regimes responsible for the fact that many treatments remain out of reach from those who need them most? What are the effects of inadequate intellectual property rights and prohibitively high tariffs on drugs in developing countries?
               
These and other questions will be addressed during  a briefing by Julian Morris, director of the International Policy Network in Great Britain, and Barun Mitra, president of the Liberty Institute in New Delhi, India. Other speakers include Nicholas Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Scholar in Political Economy at AEI; Roger Bate, resident scholar at AEI; and Maureen Lewis, senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. AEI research fellow Vance Serchuk will moderate.