ABSTRACT
The uneven distribution of the world’s economic resources has ensured that the research-based pharmaceutical industry and the market it serves belong to the North (WHO, 1988). Medicines sold annually for billions of U.S. dollars are manufactured to alleviate cardiovascular, psychotropic, and inflammatory illnesses for affluent people in the North. The economy of the South is too weak to offer a viable market to support the research and development needed to provide new medicines to combat the infectious diseases that plague the population there. Sadly, despite the vast number of people in need of anthelminthic treatment (Table 1.1), there is no commercial incentive to develop new drugs for a market that cannot pay. The process of drug development is long, complex, and extremely expensive (McIntosh et al., 1989). The research-based pharmaceutical industry is obliged to reward shareholders, must pay wages, and must invest for its future survival. The handful of ageing essential anthelminthic drugs now available in generic form for the treatment of helminthiasis in humans (WHO, 2004) owes much to the demand created by the North’s lucrative veterinary market.
