Abstract

The Cambridge Global Health Commercialization & Funding Roundtable was held as a two-day conference at the Institute for Manufacturing April 19-20, 2012. The meeting concentrated on exploring innovation for global development in the area of healthcare. The Roundtable brought together global health entrepreneurs, investors/ funders and other participants comprising an “innovation ecosystem”, such as civil society, member states and researchers, to explore business models in discovery, development and delivery of global health innovations. The Roundtable conference focused on tuberculosis [TB] an age-old infectious disease that still claims 1.8 million lives per year, and yet is curable with the tools and technologies available today. Entrepreneurs, as agents of change, have historically demonstrated ability to link supply and demand in new ways. Since the year 2000 and the declaration of the Millennium Development Goals, there has been increased economic support to accelerate innovation for tuberculosis prevention and treatment. New public-private partnerships have formed and new innovators have joined the fight against TB. We, the conference organising team, are delighted to use this conference report as a tool to encourage discussion on the importance of entrepreneurs and the role they play in accelerating health innovations. Global health in not a challenge that can be tackled alone and we hope that the Roundtable conference, the material on our website ww.bit.ly/ghcfroundtable, and this report can build on existing partnerships, bridge gaps and initiate new collaborations.