CENTER FOR DISEASE DYNAMICS, ECONOMICS & POLICY ANNOUNCES INDEPENDENCE

FOR RELEASE: December 1, 2010
CONTACT: Andrea Titus, Communications Manager, CDDEP, 202-328-5152, [email protected]

WASHINGTON – The Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), formerly a research unit of Resources for the Future, has announced its independent founding and launched a new website www.cddep.org.

The transition establishes the Center as a 501(c)(3) organization, enabling CDDEP to grow in its research efforts while maintaining its focus on developing innovative policy solutions to reduce the impact of infectious and non-communicable diseases worldwide.

“We are delighted that this exemplary research center, skillfully led by Ramanan Laxminarayan, has matured into an organization with the intellectual rigor and financial base to stand on its own,” said RFF President Phil Sharp. “RFF takes pride in its role in incubating and developing CDDEP and we hope to remain closely affiliated in the future.”

As a Senior Fellow at RFF, Laxminarayan pioneered the integration of epidemiological models and economic analysis, particularly in addressing the public health problems of antibiotic resistance and malaria.

“This new phase of our life as an organization brings exciting challenges, and we consider this development a tribute to the quality of CDDEP’s research and its policy impact,” said Laxminarayan. “We look forward to a close relationship with RFF as our team expands its work in disease modeling and analysis.”

Nobel prize-winning economist Kenneth Arrow, who has been closely associated with CDDEP’s work on antibiotic resistance and malaria,said of the organization’s founding, "CDDEP is unique in its combination of knowledge and talents for all the fields –economics, biology, and public health – needed to deal with the rapidly developing and increasingly dangerous emergence of drug resistance. CDDEP and its collaborators have already proven that they can identify the key issues and devise innovative solutions to the world’s major challenges in all facets of disease control.

To accompany its launch, CDDEP has unveiled a new website with more than 200 publications and dozens of research tools, including dynamic graphics and presentations: http://www.cddep.org. Ongoing CDDEP projects include Extending the Cure, a research and consultative effort that looks at policy solutions to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance; the Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership; and the Malaria Atlas Project –Elimination.

About CDDEP

The Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) produces independent, multidisciplinary research to advance the health and well being of people in the United States and around the world.

CDDEP builds networks of experts in a range of disciplines –including economics, epidemiology, disease modeling, risk analysis, and statistics—to produce policy-oriented, actionable research on malaria, antibiotic resistance, disease control priorities, environmental health, the adverse effects of alcohol and tobacco, and other health issues. With offices in Washington, DC and New Delhi, CDDEP aims to bridge the gaps between research and policy development while developing synergies between research and policy in the United States and low- and middle-income countries.

About RFF

Resources for the Future, founded in 1952, is an independent and nonpartisan institution devoted to research and publishing about critical issues in environmental and natural resource policy.