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November 2011
Top five ways for pharmaceutical industry to address neglected diseases
November 29, 2011 -- In a blog post on Forbes, contributor Sarika Bansal suggests the top five ways that pharmaceutical companies can contribute to drug development for neglected diseases. Because drug development for neglected diseases that affect the world’s poorest communities is not usually a profitable endeavor, Bansal spoke with officials from the pharmaceutical industry, research groups, and intellectual property organizations to explore how for-profit groups can help propel research to fight neglected diseases. These conversations led the author to offer the following five suggestions for how the pharmaceutical industry can help address these diseases.
1) Form research partnerships to address neglected diseases.
While many for-profit companies are reluctant to take on the financial risk of developing drugs on their own, they are receptive to partnering with other groups. GHTC members the Drugs for Neglected Diseases inititative (DNDi), the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), and the TB Alliance have all proven the benefits of this strategy by working with pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs to treat neglected diseases. According to the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Association (IFPMA), 80 percent of current research efforts for neglected diseases involve collaboration.
Mario Ottiglio, Associate Director of Public Affairs and Global Health Policy at IFPMA, said that partnerships are "basically a very pragmatic solution to address market failure in neglected diseases. Pharmaceutical companies bring adequate resources, while academia and government bring the epidemiological context.”
2) Join patent pools
By cross-licensing products and technologies, pharmaceutical companies can accelerate development of the tools needed to fight neglected diseases. Recently, GHTC member BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVHG) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched a database to help partners from the private sector and foundations share intellectual property.
3) Donate drugs
This type of activity by drug companies began in 1987, when Merck was unable to find a buyer for a drug used to treat river blindness. By donating the drug to those in need, Merck set a precedent for other pharmaceutical companies to lead similar efforts. Since then, many companies have donated drugs to treat neglected diseases. While these gestures are helpful, they are still inadequate to reach the number of people who need the treatments.
4) Establish facilities to treat neglected diseases
In order to sufficiently address neglected diseases, some pharmaceutical companies are opening facilities dedicated to the effort.
Paul Herrling of Novartis, which has opened two of these facilities, stressed the benefits of these centers by highlighting the access to research and the ability to promote innovative efforts to fight neglected diseases. Herrling said, “If [a pharmaceutical company] has an institute with a hundred people who do nothing but work on neglected diseases, it can accomplish so much.”
5) Allow for formal and informal scientific work on neglected diseases
Pharmaceutical companies can use their teams of expert scientists in two ways to help address neglected diseases. First, they can officially designate their work to focus solely on neglected diseases, both at research institutes like those listed above and at the company’s existing labs. Secondly, they can enable scientists to use their free time to pursue research efforts devoted to neglected diseases and help them at the institutional level.
Through all of these efforts, it’s clear that pharmaceutical companies are becoming increasingly more engaged with neglected diseases.
“Big Pharma has made a lot of mistakes in the past,” said Robert Sebbag from Sanofi, “and today, it is unacceptable for the private sector to not be a partner of public health.”
