When the US Congress authorised the FDA’s Tropical Disease Priority Review Voucher Program in 2007, it sought to spur development of drugs that prevent or treat tropical diseases afflicting millions of people worldwide – diseases with a disproportionate impact on lives in impoverished, developing countries. Meg Egan Auderset of Clarivate discusses the idea of a pharmaceutical company that successfully develops a drug product to treat any of a list of tropical diseases upon FDA approval of the product.