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TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, was set up in the mid-1970s to promote research to improve the health of the poor. This year TDR celebrates 30 years of its key decision-making body, the Joint Coordinating Board - one of the first such bodies to represent a balance of donor and disease-endemic countries. This year a new strategy marks a turning point for TDR, which is co-sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO). Dr Robert Ridley explains.
Robert Ridley earned his BA in 1977 and his PhD in 1980 in organic chemistry and biochemistry at Cambridge University in his native country, the United Kingdom. He has held positions at universities in Canada, Malawi and the United Kingdom. In 1992, he became Infectious Diseases Drug Discovery vice director at F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. in Switzerland where he headed malaria and immunology research. From 1998 to 2001 he managed drug discovery research at TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, and worked within TDR to promote public-private partnerships. In 1999, he helped to establish the Medicines for Malaria Venture and served as its chief scientific officer until 2001, before returning to TDR as coordinator of product research and development. Ridley was appointed TDR director in 2004.
Q: Why was TDR originally set up?
A: TDR was set up in the mid-1970s when WHO, through its Advisory Committee on Health Research and the World Health Assembly (WHA), recognized that science was not being applied enough to infectious diseases of poverty. The idea was to create an organization that had a broad-based governance mechanism beyond WHO, since it would rely on voluntary contributions and would not take contributions from the core needs of WHO. WHO and the WHA recognized that this research had to be done through partnerships. UNDP and the World Bank backed the project and other organizations came on board. TDR's original goal was to promote research led by people and institutions in countries that are affected by tropical diseases. That model and goal are as valid today as they were.
Q: The concept of "tropical diseases" originates from the medicine practised...