iMED is pleased to announce the publication of its first report: the Horizon Scan Report. Commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation, this report surveys the existing and potential funding mechanisms for pharmaceutical research and development.

The report categorizes the funding mechanisms for R&D into four groups: grants, prizes, patents and remuneration rights.¹ It argues that remuneration rights are the most promising of these mechanisms in terms of facilitating both access and innovation, before giving an overview of the technical and political challenges to be addressed in the design of a remuneration rights system.

The Horizon Scan Report also reviews and summarises the most important remuneration rights style proposals to date, and provides useful references for further reading. More information on the funding mechanism proposals which our research process uncovered can be found in the Proposals Database.

The four main kinds of funding mechanism for medical R&D are reviewed in the Horizon Scan Report.

• Grants provide excellent stimulus for early stage research, but are less suited to outcome-driven late stage research.
• Patents incentivise innovation, but at the expense of access, as R&D is remunerated through high prices for healthcare buyers.
• Prizes resolve the access problem posed by patents, but do not provide a systematic way of remunerating innovation proportionate to health impact.
• Remuneration rights provide a comprehensive system incentivising innovation based on health impact and enabling access for all.