WIPO Re:Search initiative to drive R&D in Neglected Tropical Diseases
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently announced the launch of Re:Search – a new consortium where public and private sector organizations share valuable intellectual property (IP) and expertise with the global health research community to promote development of new drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics to treat neglected tropical diseases, malaria, and tuberculosis.
The WIPO Re:Search initiative hopes to speed up development of medicines, vaccines and diagnostics that might otherwise go under-researched, or might never be developed because the potential market is not lucrative enough.
"By joining WIPO Re:Search, companies and researchers commit to making selected intellectual property assets available under royalty-free licences to qualified researchers anywhere in the world for research and development on neglected tropical diseases, malaria and tuberculosis" Francis Gurry, WIPO's director general said.
The consortium involves AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co., Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Eisai working in collaboration with WIPO, BVGH, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and multiple non-profit research organizations. These include the California Institute of Technology, the Center for World Health & Medicine, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Medicines for Malaria Venture, PATH, the South African Medical Research Council, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Dundee (UK).
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), neglected tropical diseases today impair the lives of an estimated 1 billion people. There are 149 countries and territories where neglected tropical diseases are endemic, at least 100 of which are endemic for 2 or more of these diseases, and 30 countries that are endemic for 6 or more.
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