GSK Announces "Open Innovation" Strategy to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases

    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."

Comments

[Kevin Outterson]

GSK also produces a HPV vaccine, with significant sales in the OECD, but most of the global unmet burden of cervical cancer falls in the low and medium-income countries. Did Witty discuss GSK's differential pricing policies for HPV?

Kevin Outterson
BU Law

[Online Doctor Consultation]

It's a brilliant project by the GlaxoSmithKline. They are not developing medicines but also helps in fighting poverty. I'm sure many are hoping on this project to get successful.

[6]

GSK can't fool me with it's "philanthropy". If the devil cures a few diseases would you welcome him into your home any more than you do now?

More power to them to do good things, but don't think for a minute this ridiculousness makes up for their prior actions in the slightest.