The relative inaccessibility of effective treatments for common conditions that plague people in the least developed countries (LDCs)1 has perpetuated the ongoing global health disparity. Such well-documented impact has highlighted, among other problems, the inequitable production of health knowledge relevant to addressing disease burdens in these regions. People in LDCs suffer from the greatest burden of disease and disability, but that burden has received the least medical research attention. One study examined twenty-six poverty-related diseases that are responsible for 13.8 per cent of the global disease burden. It found that these conditions only received 1.34 per cent of global health-related R&D expenditure.2 Researchers and pharmaceutical companies in developed countries mostly focus on the priorities of wealthy regions.3 Due to high costs and other geo-political factors, many impoverished nations have not been able to invest in the necessary infrastructure for clinical research, perpetuating the knowledge gap among regions.