Beginning in the late 1990s, the suggestion emerged to address this situation by encouraging policy makers in rich countries to view health assistance not only as humanitarian but as a selfish investment in protecting the health of their own populations. The key concept underlying this new interpretation is that of 'global public goods' (GPGs) [1] . This paper briefly outlines and clarifies the GPG concept, and identifies two major health GPGs: health research and development (R&D), and communicable disease control. However, just because a problem is global and formidable, or just because the response is multilateral, does not necessarily mean that it has anything to do with the undersupply of GPGs. We show this by considering two major global health innovations, GFATM and the rebranding of traditional health objectives in the form of MDGs. Based on the review, in a concluding section we suggest three ways in which the GPG concept can be more effectively deployed to promote global health development.