Markets, Prosperity Determine Research-Cervical carcinoma

Pharmaceutical companies focus their research on the most lucrative markets. This is nothing wrong but leaves a huge disparity in the kind of diseases suffered by the rich and the poor. I am tempted to say that some agencies or government should focus on health issues suffered by poor. I am referring to a recent report which mentions that the number of molecules in pipeline for cervical cancer is the least. Lung, leukemia and lymphoma are the top three. Cervical carcinoma is the second common cancer in females but the burden is in Asia and Africa. They are not lucrative markets!It can be argued that GSK and MSD have come up with HPV vaccine which should take care of cervical carcinoma in coming years. But the fine print is that the vaccine is effective against few variants of HPV, especially HPV 16, 18, 31 and 45. They are the risky ones but there is a possibility that other HPV strains can become more virulent when they do not have competition from the regular aggressive ones.
Let me change the direction of thought towards what can be done to decrease the diseases of the poor. The rich benefited  better health  because of various reasons. Cervical carcinoma, tuberculosis, malaria, dysentery etc decreased in the affluent much before effective treatment for the same emerged. Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is doing a great job by focusing on these diseases but at times I have my doubt. Improvements in sanitation, hygiene, living standards, housing, diet have helped the affordable to conquer these diseases. The rise in household income also brings in better female literacy, optimum marriage age!, lower fertility rate, better nutrition. I guess i have stressed my point. Better socio-economic conditions will help the cause of health.

So growth is what is urgently required in Asia and Africa. But how should one deal with the issue. They tend to go hand in hand. How does one allocate resources? What percentage should go towards building infrastructure, improving income of the people versus investing in the research of the diseases suffered by them. Much of this also related to governance and political will/systems, but that will be digressing too far!!