By
Donald Zuhn —

In January, GlaxoSmithKline announced
a series of initiatives for developing new medicines to combat diseases that
disproportionately affect the world's poorest countries.  The initiatives, which comprise GSK's
"open innovation" strategy, were outlined in a speech
given by GSK Chief Executive Andrew Witty to the Council on Foreign Relations on
January 20th.  These initiatives
include:

•
Making more than 13,500 malaria compounds freely available;
•
Establishing new collaborations for sharing IP for treating neglected tropical diseases;
•
Pledging to create a sustainable pricing model for a malaria candidate vaccine;
•
Providing $8 million in seed funding for an "open lab"; and
•
Awarding African Malaria Partnership grants totaling $2.5 million.

GSK described the
collection of potential malaria drugs as having been obtained following a screen of its pharmaceutical
compound library of more than two million molecules for those that might
inhibit the malaria parasite Plasmodium
falciparum.  The company noted
that it took five scientists a year to identify the more than 13,500 compounds
that GSK is now making freely available. 
GSK also noted that it would make the chemical structures and
associated assay data freely available to the public via scientific websites.

With
respect to the company's goal to share IP for neglected tropical diseases, GSK said that
it was handing the administration of the tropical diseases patent pool it
developed last year to an independent third party, BIO Ventures for Global
Health (BVGH).  Last March, GSK
formed the patent pool to aid in the discovery and development of new medicines
for the treatment of sixteen neglected tropical diseases (as defined by the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration), including tuberculosis, malaria, blinding
trachoma, buruli ulcer, cholera, dengue/dengue haemorrhagic fever, racunculiasis,
fascioliasis, human African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, leprosy, lymphatic
filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil transmitted helminthiasis,
and yaws.  In August, Alnylam
Pharmaceuticals contributed more than 1,500 of its RNA interference (RNAi)
patents to the pool (see "Alnylam
to Donate RNAi Patents to Patent Pool").  Mr. Witty (at left) told the Council that the pool "was never meant to be a 'GSK pool'," and therefore, that he was "delighted" to be able to hand its administration over to BVGH.  Both GSK and BVGH have also entered
into an agreement with the Emory Institute for Drug Discovery (EIDD) to join
the patent pool and further open up knowledge, chemical libraries, and other
assets in the search for new medicines for neglected tropical diseases.  In addition, GSK will be collaborating with
iThemba Pharmaceuticals to identify new medicines for treating tuberculosis.

GSK
also outlined a pricing strategy it has developed for the malaria candidate vaccine
RTS,S, which is currently in Phase III trials in seven African countries.  The company noted that the drug, if
shown to be effective, would be priced so as to recover the cost of its
development plus a small return intended to be fully reinvested into research
and development of second-generation malaria vaccines or vaccines for other
neglected tropical diseases.

The
company's "open lab" initiative would provide research space for up
to 60 scientists at GSK's research center at the Tres Cantos Campus in Spain.  The Tres Cantos Campus is dedicated to
the research and development of new medicines for diseases of the developing
world.

In
outlining the company's open innovation strategy, Mr. Witty told the Council
that GSK wanted "to be a company that is truly a partner in addressing the
healthcare challenges in the world's poorest countries, no matter how difficult
they are.  A restless company,
never satisfied with what it has achieved, but always looking for ways of doing
more."