Analysis of the Health Product Profile Directory - A New Tool to Inform Priority Setting in Global Public Health

Background: The Health Product Profile Directory (HPPD), is an online database describing 8-10 key characteristics (such as target population, measures of efficacy and dosage) of product profiles for medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and other products that are intended to be accessed by populations in low- and middle-income countries. It was developed by TDR on behalf of WHO and launched on 15 May 2019. Methods: The contents of the HPPD was downloaded into an ExcelTM spreadsheet via the open access interface and analysed to identify the number of health product profiles by type, by disease, by year of publication, by status, by author organization and safety information. Findings: The HPPD contains summaries of 215 health product profiles published between 2008 and May 2019, 117 (54%) provide a hyperlink to the detailed publication from which the summary was extracted, the remaining 98 provide an email contact for further information. 55 target disease or health conditions are covered with 210 profiles describing a product with an infectious disease as the target. Only 5 product profiles in the HPPD describe a product for a non-communicable disease. Four diseases account for 40% of product profiles in the HPPD: TB 33 profiles (15%), Malaria 31 profiles (14%) HIV 13 profiles (6%) ad Chagas 10 profiles (5%). Interpretation: the HPPD provides a new tool to inform priority setting in global health - it includes all product profiles authored by WHO (51). There is a need to standardise nomenclature to more clearly distinguish between strategic publications (describing R&D priorities or preferred characteristics) compared to target product profiles to guide a specific candidate product undergoing R&D. Combining the analysis from HPPD to a mapping of funds available for R&D and those products in the R&D pipeline would create a better overview of global health priorities and how they are supported. Such analysis and increased transparency should take us another step closer to measuring and improving coordination of efforts in global health R&D. Funding Statement: TDR was funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Declaration of Interests: No conflict of interest is declared by the authors. Ethics Approval Statement: Not required.