Responding to a disease with resources from other diseases: evidence from Zika vaccine research dynamics

Responding to health needs in one disease area might rely on being able to draw on research and funding oriented towards other disease areas. However, the tendency of medical research to cross-disease areas has received limited empirical consideration. An outbreak, in a disease area with little prior research or funding, means that any research response will necessarily be rich with cross-disease flows. This affords a setting that allows us to identify and examine the phenomenon over time. We estimate the extent to which the vaccine research community’s response to Zika virus drew on research and funding from other diseases. We find that a persistently low share of funding into Zika vaccine research was Zika-oriented. In contrast, a much higher share of knowledge inputs was oriented to Zika. The exercise serves to illustrate some general themes in priority setting for health research systems alongside some core features of vaccine innovation.