Today’s NY Times has an interesting article about drugs companies racing to make drugs to fight obesity.

From pharmaceutical giants to tiny start-ups, the industry is spending billions of dollars developing obesity drugs. An estimated 200 possibilities are now in the research pipeline or under test among patients at dozens of clinics like L-Marc, according to MedMarket Diligence, a health care research firm.

Compare that to the pitifully small investment in vaccines and drugs for diseases concentrated in developing countries, such as HIV, AIDS and tuberculosis, which kill 5-7 million people a year around the world. We’ve been working on an idea to create a market for vaccines for these diseases, so that the pharmaceutical firms have an incentive to invest. This NY Times article only confirms that if the market is there, the investment will follow.