Oxymoron No More: The Potential Of Nonprofit Drug Companies To Deliver On The Promise Of Medicines For The Developing World

Abstract

Although some pharmaceutical company efforts to develop and distribute drugs in developing countries have been successful, many fall short of meeting needs in resource-poor nations. In the context of public-private partnerships, we discuss the concept of a nonprofit pharmaceutical company dedicated to developing and distributing drugs for diseases endemic in developing countries. Using the experience of the Institute for OneWorld Health, we present the vision, core elements of the product development model, and challenges confronting this model. Despite limitations, early successes raise hopes that a nonprofit drug company can exist successfully both as a global health organization and as a business.

Non-profit drug research and development: the case study of Genethon

“…However, like many other non-profit R&D organizations, Genethon may face important challenges [1,4]. For instance, small ventures which are often established around a focused R&D program may not have the expertise or resources that are needed to develop medicines from discovery to commercialization.…”

“…For instance, small ventures which are often established around a focused R&D program may not have the expertise or resources that are needed to develop medicines from discovery to commercialization. Even if the clinical development program for one of Genethon’s products is successful, the company may struggle to obtain the necessary marketing authorization (MA) or to subsequently manufacture and distribute the product, because of funding and human resource shortages [1]. In the following section, we discuss how Genethon has tackled these issues.…”

“…Non-profit drug research and development (R&D) is of growing attention worldwide [1–3]. In affluent societies, the exorbitant cost of advanced treatments, particularly in the segment of rare diseases, has placed increasing strain on the budgets of health care insurers and patients [2,4–10].…”

Developing Drugs For Developing Countries

“…14 One type of push strategy is the public-private partnership (PPP). 15 PPPs use philanthropic funding to contract with public-and private-sector entities that develop drug candidates for neglected diseases. 16 For example, in 2005 the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) received $750 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and $290 million from the Norwegian government to increase access to existing vaccines and accelerate R&D efforts for treatments for neglected diseases.…”

Intellectual property policy in the pharmaceutical sciences: The effect of inappropriate patents and market exclusivity extensions on the health care system

“…Currently, it is pursuing cooperative licensing agreements for future products that treat diseases (such as malaria and Chagas ' disease) that might not otherwise be pursued by traditional for-profi t manufacturers. 31 Similarly, the group Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) has advocated for academic centers to proactively seek development licenses with pharmaceutical manufacturers in an effort to produce reasonably priced products that would have otherwise not been available in low-income markets. 32 According to a report in Nature, Yale University recently agreed not to enforce patents covering an AIDS drug (developed by Yale researchers) in some low-income countries.…”