This novel study demonstrated that ocular barrier epithelial cells express the machinery for vitamin D3 and can produce 1,25(OH)2D3. We suggest that vitamin D3 might have a role in immune regulation and barrier function in ocular barrier epithelial cells.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYIn response to issues raised in the report of the World Health Organization (WHO)affiliated Consultative Expert Working Group (CEWG) on research and development (R&D) financing and coordination and the desire of the U.S. government to obtain a wide range of nongovernmental perspectives on the funding and coordination of the global health research enterprise, several members of the IOM Global Health Interest Group and other experts combined efforts to produce an IOM discussion paper to capture their views on approaches to research priority-setting, the leading gaps in global health R&D, R&D planning and costing, the private-sector role in global health R&D, the creation of effective global health research networks, the building of R&D capacity in developing countries, innovations in financing the global health R&D enterprise, and principles of global health R&D management.Overall, we agreed with many fundamental elements of the CEWG report, including its concerns about market failures for many diseases of global health importance and its assessment of the hurdles for advancing global health innovation, especially those required for product development, product licensure, and global patient access. There was agreement on the importance of establishing a well-functioning Global Health R&D Observatory as a first step toward improving global health R&D priority setting and coordination. The co-authors also recognized the complexities around some of the specific CEWG report recommendations, such as those for a binding international treaty or other legal instrument, a common pool of R&D funds, and the call for specific financial targets rather than identified global health R&D deliverables.We wish to emphasize agreement with the need for a "framework" to expand the role of governments in supporting and enabling global health R&D that could incorporate the following elements: 1) financing, 2) priority setting and coordination, 3) other nonfinancial R&D gaps, and 4) key principles and global norms.Our analysis of R&D financing summarized in this paper employed new information just issued from the 2012 Global Funding for Innovation in Neglected Diseases (G-FINDER) report and the Global Burden of Disease 2010 study to confirm that there remains a severe gap in R&D funding for many global health conditions, especially malaria, diarrheal diseases, bacterial pneumonia and meningitis, and almost all of the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

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