Market Research

Lisa Ganley-Leal and Pauline Mwinzi of Epsilon Therapeutics, Inc. in the U.S. will test the hypothesis that selling vaccines through medicine shops in emerging markets can lead to profits for both vaccine developers and the small business owners. Demonstrating profitability may lead pharmaceutical companies to invest greater resources in vaccine development and distribution and develop local partnerships for profitability strategies.

Jonathan Colton of Georgia Institute of Technology in the U.S., with John Lloyd, Andrew Garnett and Steve McCarney, will solicit proposals from industry to create a full set of requirements and engineering specifications for the development of a new "net zero energy" warehouse and distribution system for vaccines and drugs in developing countries.

With a team of researchers, economists and physician-scientists, Matthew Davis of the University of Michigan will establish a program to link new vaccine discoveries with vaccine manufacturers in developing countries while simultaneously evaluating ways to help these manufacturers purchase rights to these innovative candidates.

Terry Ferrari of World Vision will field test in central Mozambique two mobile phone modules that prompt community health workers caring for pregnant women and newborns to assess, to take action, and to refer care in cases of complications and emergencies. Data gathered from this study will help refine the modules and inform plans to scale up the program to other districts.

Naoru Koizumi of George Mason University in the U.S. will evaluate whether offering individuals a choice between different information and communication technologies (ICTs) will increase adherence to treatment for tuberculosis, which lasts six months. Treatment compliance particularly in urban poor populations is low, leading to the emergence of dangerous multi-drug resistant strains of the tuberculosis bacterium. Current methods used to increase compliance, such as sending SMS reminders and financial incentives, do not suit every patient.

Frederic Pivetta of Real Impact Analytics in Luxembourg will develop a platform and applications to leverage data from telecom operators to identify individuals in developing countries, who are often women, without access to digital financial services. They hypothesize that these isolated individuals display unique cell phone behaviors that they can use to identify them. Once identified, they can be directly targeted with appropriate campaigns and products to encourage them to get beneficial financial services such as mobile money accounts.

Travis Lybbert of the University of California, Davis, in the U.S. will develop a simple, low-cost approach that uses mobile phone records to track changes in living standards and use it to evaluate new mobile money saving products and services in Haiti. They will develop prediction algorithms for mobile phone records using in-person and phone surveys collected as part of a planned randomized control trial (RCT), which will be used to evaluate a new type of savings account they are developing with a leading mobile services provider.

Amy Smith of Human Network International in the U.S. will provide free financial services information to mobile phone users in Malawi, and collect data such as mobile call details to help design and deliver better financial services. They have an existing free information service on a range of topics that they will supplement with financial inclusion material so that customers can dial in for free and request information of interest to them.

Ralph Lin and Kathryn Vasilaky of Groundtruth, LLC in the U.S. will develop a new approach to more accurately measure rainfall across farming regions in developing countries so that insurers can make more informed and rapid decisions for paying out to small-scale farmers with insurance against seasonal crop loss. This will also help farmers decide the best time to plant their crops, which is critical for maximizing yield. Satellite data are not currently accurate or stable enough to measure rainfall over small areas.