Scientific research on diseases: the distinct profile of developed and developing countries

In most of the countries across the globe, health is seen as a priority. The European Commission (2013), for example, considers health as a precondition for economic prosperity given that people's health influences economic outcomes in terms of productivity, labor supply, human capital and public spending. Accordingly, the Commission places health in one of the big Societal Challenges ('health, demographic change and wellbeing') in Horizon 2020. Part of the investment on research and development is devoted to specific diseases. In order to assess whether scientific research is targeting the most pressing diseases, some studies have tried to analyze the degree of alignment between the funding allocated to specific diseases and the burden of disease (e.g. Gillum et al, 2011; Kingel et al, 2014). Others, like Evans et al (2014), focus on the relationship between research outputs dealing with specific diseases and the burden of disease. (Author)