Incentives for innovation are particularly relevant in the pharmaceutical

industry where not all social needs provide equally profitable

opportunities and where most OECD countries try to implement diffe -

rent measures that promote research in these less profitable areas. The

lack of incentives for innovation is especially dramatic when we take

into account diseases affecting mostly low-income countries, and also

diseases affecting small groups of patients.

How can incentives be provided to deal with these less profitable acti -

vities when no clear markets exist for the innovations being introduced?

Some of the contributions of this book go into discussing alternative

mechanisms to substitute for these inexistent markets, and

situations where traditional instruments such as public procurement or

direct subsidies have proven totally insufficient. Also, this book discusses

the clear mismatch between the size of the markets being targeted and

the incentives being provided.