Sex, gender, and health biotechnology: points to consider

We propose sex and gender considerations at five critical stages of health biotechnology research and development: priority setting; technology design; clinical trials; commercialization, and health services delivery.Applying a systematic sex and gender framework to five key process stages of health biotechnology research and development could be a first step towards unlocking the opportunities of this promising science for women in the developing world.Imagine you are a scientist, a research funder, or a policymaker concerned with biotechnology and the developing world. You know that biotechnology holds the promise of spawning health and agricultural interventions such as new vaccines that don't require refrigeration, micronutrient enriched genetically modified plants, and point of care diagnostics. In addition, you believe that biotechnology has the potential to improve global health equity. Indeed, technology can play an important role, complementary to social and political interventions, in transforming the lives of millions of people in developing countries, particularly the poor and rural. At the same time, however, you are concerned with the impacts of these new technologies on the health and social well-being of women, who not only often experience a greater burden of disease, but also have the responsibility of caring for their families and income-generating obligations too. How would you think about this topic, and what questions would you ask, bearing in mind that gender equity is crucial for human development, economic growth, and population health?Feminist economists, environmentalists, and agriculturalists have generated substantial debate and literature on gender equity. For example, gender-based frameworks have been proposed in the context of public health policy, practice, health research [1,2], and epidemiological research [3]. Gender-based frameworks have also been developed as tools to integrate gender concerns at all stages of initiatives [4]. H