The treatment of lupus nephritis

1918-9, for example, killed an estimated 40-50 million people.Research into influenza, in relation to its catastrophic potential, is underfunded. 2Worse still, we do not even seem able to provide sufficient vaccine to control epidemic influenza in the most developed countries.Little confidence exists that we could undertake a global immunisation programme for an influenza pandemic even if we had sufficient warning of its antigenic profile unless we can sharpen up on manufacture and distribution.Other notable examples of neglected diseases afflicting the world include antibacterial drug resistance, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, alcoholic liver disease, and stroke. 1 Secondly, the pharmaceutical industry is clearly unable to meet the needs of people with neglected diseases.This is not a criticism but a fact, for the pharmaceutical industry is a business and needs to provide its shareholders with a return on their investment.Many neglected diseases are unlikely to to do this and investment represents a great commercial risk.The industry will continue to play a major part in the discovery and development of drugs; but we need much greater pluralism in both the funding and discovery of novel treatments.Examples of this pluralistic approach already exist.Substantial public funds for basic and clinical research, ultimately aimed at producing new forms of treatment, are available in the United States and to a lesser extent in Europe.The research agenda in the WHO report should be a major feature of the European Union's next research programme.For this we must rely on the influence of the Dutch presidency.But Europe also needs to harness the potential of public-private partnerships along the lines of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, or the Hereditary Disease Foundation in the United States. 3Public-private partnerships involve joint investment of resources by bodies including universities, government supported research organisations, pharmaceutical companies, venture capitalists, and research based charities.The Hereditary Disease Foundation's public-private partnerships include, for example, not only the foundation itself but several pharmaceutical companies and academic researchers of the Huntington Study Group collectively seeking an effective treatment for Huntington's disease; and that of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development is a joint initiative between the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO, a group of university based investigators, and several private companies. 3hirdly, the cost of developing a new drug must be reduced. 4Unless savage cuts can be made in the