CURRENT STATUS OF GSPA ELEMENTS: REGIONAL AND GLOBAL LEVELS

6  Up-to-date published reports on research opportunities, needs and priorities, and research achievements for individual infectious diseases or cross-disease issues that are widely accepted and promote disease endemic country DEC research;  Comprehensive analyses of regional or global research needs, science opportunities and challenges in health systems that stimulate high level fora and action; and  Biennial report on infectious diseases research; priority research needs, gaps and global progress like the Global Report for Research on Infectious Diseases of Poverty published in 2012 byTDR. 20 One of the major challenges in mapping health RD is the data source. A number of researchers have explored different data collection sources and methodologies for purposes of mapping. Viergiver, et al, identified gaps in health research and development by using data from the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform ICTRP. 21 On the other hand, Røttingen et al used international databases to provide a comprehensive description of available data sources, propose a set of indicators for monitoring the global landscape for health research and development, and present a sample of country indicators on research inputs investments, processes clinical trials and outputs publications. Their paper confirmed that substantial gaps in the global landscape for health RD still exist, with too few investments being targeted towards the health needs of low and middle-income countries. Their results showed the need for better data to improve priority setting and coordination for health RD, in order to ensure that resources are allocated to diseases and regions where they are most needed. 22 Regional Mapping of health RD among the ASEAN-member countries was conducted from November 2009 to December 2010, as part of the groundwork for the establishment of the ASEAN Network for Drugs, Diagnostics, Vaccines, and Traditional Medicines Innovation ASEAN-NDI. 23 Data for the mapping exercise was collected via surveys and key informant interviews among researchers and esea h i stitutio s. A e ie of Else ie s “ opus data ase as also do e. It as a ied-out in order to assess the product RD landscape for the triple burden infectious tropical, non- communicable and preventable diseases of disease in the region. Specifically, it aimed to: a. map-out the capabilities of the ASEAN member countries on drugs, diagnostics, vaccines and traditional medicine innovation on infectious tropical diseases; b. create a database of institutions, networks and initiatives with capacities for innovation; and c. provide the template for the establishment of an ASEAN regional network for innovation in product research and development. The results of the mapping exercise showed a wide and diverse RD capacity among ASEAN countries on drugs, diagnostics, vaccines and traditional medicine. For example, the number of bio-medical articles published by countries between 2005 and 2009 ranged from 86 in Vietnam to