In the last few years, product development partnerships (PDPs), a form of public-private partnerships (PPPs), have gained growing popularity as mechanisms for increasing access to essential drugs in low- and middle-income countries. In Health Partnerships Review, experts and practitioners from around the world highlight progress and key areas for urgent attention:

• greater and more sustainable financing over the longer term;
• better mechanisms for coordination;
• strengthening of organizational capacities;
• creation of legislative, regulatory and service infrastructures and assessment;
• frameworks that will ensure that the new products are effective, safe, affordable and accessible to those in need and that they are taken up and used.

This report was prepared for the Global Forum for Health Research by Caryn Miller as a contribution to Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research 2004.