Institute for One World Health

In 2000, Dr. Victoria Hale launched a new non-profit pharmaceutical company, the Institute for One World Health, based on the principle that research and product development “decisions could be based on global need rather than financial opportunity.” Crucially, the Institute has neither ignored, nor established itself in opposition to, private pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. To reduce the costs of drugs the Institute has instead promoted partnership and collaboration arrangements with private companies that provide for donations or royalty-free licensing of intellectual property. To the same end, the Institute endeavors to use low-cost research and manufacturing capacity, especially where located in developing countries, when possible. These efforts are now showing results: the Institute will file for regulatory approval in India in early 2006 to use paramomycin, an off-patent antibiotic long approved for use in the U.S., to treat visceral leishmaniasis. The leishmaniasis effort has combined many private and public elements, including foundation funding, assistance from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. NIH, and alliances with for-profit biotechnology firms such as Celera Genomics. In 2003, the Institute launched the largest phase 3 clinical treatment for leishmaniasis, and treated more than 600 patients; this trial provided the basis for the Indian regulatory application. The Institute also seeks to enter into a collaboration arrangement with a manufacturer, to produce the drug at low-cost and high quality. In addition, the Institute seeks to extend its model treatment program to other countries that have a leishmaniasis problem, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Nepal, and the Sudan. The Institute is also working toward developing new malaria therapies, as well as promoting cures for both diarrhea and chagas disease.