ORIGINAL ARTICLE The framework of international health research

Of the global budget for health research, only 10 % is spent on the disease burden of 90 % of the world’s population. Investments in international health research are lacking, hampering health of the poor in particular. Ef-fective vaccines against the world killers HIV, malaria and tuberculosis still do not exist. However, besides scaling up research for new drugs and vac-cines, research in health care systems are needed to understand the obstacles to implement new as well as existing interventions to prevent and combat the major health problems of those most in need. The task demands political and private sector commitment. Only 10 % of the global research budget concerns health issues relat-ing to 90 % of the world's population. This imbalance contributes to the significant lower health condition in low- and middle-income countries compared to high-income countries. To balance this in-equity requires poverty reduction, development and research