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Private-Public Consortium to Share IP on Tropical Diseases

Syringe (ZaldyImg/Flickr)The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has formed a partnership with pharmaceutical companies and BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) to share intellectual property and expertise to develop treatments for neglected tropical diseases, malaria, and tuberculosis. The partnership includes international and national research and public health agencies, as well as research universities and non-government organizations.

The partnership, called WIPO Re:Search, will provide a public database of intellectual property (IP) assets, information, and resources to encourage new partnerships with organizations that conduct research on treatments for neglected tropical diseases, malaria, and tuberculosis. Entries in the database are expected to include research findings such as data on individual compounds, and screening hits from compound libraries.

WIPO Re:Search says its members have endorsed what the group calls its Guiding Principles, which require that IP licensed through WIPO Re:Search be made available on a royalty-free basis for research and development on neglected tropical diseases in any country, and on a royalty-free basis for sale of neglected tropical disease medicines in, or to, least developed countries.

Pharmaceutical companies taking part in the consortium are Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, Eisai, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck/MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sanofi. One of the aims of the consortium is to encourage collaborations between these companies and researchers on tropical diseases to develop medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics.

National research agencies in WIPO Re:Search include the U.S. National Institutes of Health, as well as agencies from south Africa and Switzerland. Participating universities include MIT, CalTech, UC-Berkeley, and University of Dundee in the U.K.

BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) is a not-for-profit organization that administers the Pool for Open Innovation against Neglected Tropical Diseases. BVGH will manage the WIPO Re:Search Partnership Hub, which aims to encourage relationships between the pharmaceutical company providers and new users.

Read more: Collaboration to Develop Second-Generation Malaria Vaccine

Photo: ZaldyImg/Flickr

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