--近年来生物医药产业飞速发展，许多过去的不治之症都已经有了良好的解决办法。然而一些疾病由于患者较少或者主要集中在发展中国家而被忽视。据统计2000年到2011年有336种新药问世，而其中只有1%是用于治疗这类＂被忽视＂疾病的。这一趋势在短期内也难以改善，在2011年，全球有15000种药物在进入临床研究或前期研究，而只有1%的计划是面向贫穷的发展中国家特殊疾病的。因此世界上的一些制药巨头一直备受谴责，有人批评他们只注重利润高的药物研发而将解决贫穷人口中常见的疾病问题扔在脑后。有鉴于此，近年来葛兰素史克、诺华、强生等几大巨头也签订了旨在研究这类被＂忽视＂疾病的协议。但这些仍然远远不够，统计显示在1975年-1999年间，每年约有1.3种用于治疗这些疾病的药物问世，而2000年-2011年这一数字也仅为2.4。由此可见为解决这一问题，世界各国应当联起手来。

详细英文报道：

Despite some high-profile commitments from some of the industry's largest innovators, R&D for some of the world's most deadly neglected diseases remains underfunded and unimpressive, according to a study, a state of affairs that has barely improved over the last three decades.

Of the 336 new chemical entities approved around the world from 2000 to 2011, only 1% were for neglected diseases, according to a report published in The Lancet, and the future doesn't look much brighter: Of the 150,000 clinical trials for new therapeutic products registered as of 2011, only 1% were aimed at scourges of the developing world.

The titans of Big Pharma have long faced accusations that they skip over disease targets that affect the poorest people on the planet in pursuit of bigger profits elsewhere. But many of the world's largest drugmakers have amped up their efforts over the past few years, led largely by GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) and supported by the Gates Foundation. Last year, 13 Big Pharmas including GSK, Novartis ($NVS) and Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) signed on for a $785 million effort to launch noncompetitive, pro bono R&D projects targeting neglected diseases, with Glaxo CEO Andrew Witty pledging "to work hand-in-hand to revolutionize the way we fight these diseases now and in the future."

But it's going to take more than just agreements to close the R&D gap, according to the study's authors, and inattention to neglected disease hasn't shown marked improvement over the past 35 years. From 1975 to 1999, there were an average of 1.3 new products a year for neglected diseases, a rate that rose to just 2.4 from 2000 to 2011, according to the study.

"Our patients are still waiting for true medical breakthroughs," said Médecins Sans Frontières' Jean-Hervé Bradol, a co-author of the study. "People are still suffering and dying from these diseases, and healthcare providers must be able to offer all patients--irrespective of their ability to pay--the best treatment possible. Only then will we say that we have made progress."