Is it fair to accuse the pharma industry of neglecting tropical diseases?

From snake bites to TB, big pharma is pulling out of investment into diseases affecting the poorest, but many argue non-profit medicines aren't their job

When pharma company Sanofi Pasteur was criticised last month for ceasing its production of Africa's only snakebite anti-venom, the spotlight fell once again on the industry's apparent lack of interest in the developing world.

"It didn't fit with their business model," explains Katy Athersuch, medical and innovation policy advisor at Mi(C)decins Sans Frontiires (MSF), which she says favours higher margin drugs. An alternative supplier has been found but won't be ready until at least 2017. That could mean two years of unnecessary deaths (which some estimate run to 125,000 a year).