GSK Offers Scientists Labs, Data to Fight Malaria
From Associated Press (January 20, 2010)
NEW YORK_Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said Wednesday it will open up
its data and labs to outside scientists in an unusual effort to
trigger more research on malaria and other neglected tropical
diseases.
The London-based company also said its researchers expect in 2012
to be able to seek approval for the first vaccine against malaria,
a mosquito-borne parasitic disease that kills a million people a
year, mostly young children in Africa.
Glaxo, the world's third-biggest drugmaker by revenue, has several
drugs in testing to treat malaria as well, but it is offering
scientists worldwide free access to extensive data on 13,500 other
compounds that appear to work against malaria.
Glaxo Chief Executive Andrew Witty was to announce that Wednesday,
along with other initiatives to fight tropical diseases,
particularly malaria.
"We're deliberately trying to target and stimulate other people
into this space," he told reporters from The Associated Press and a
few other media outlets on Tuesday. We are "trying to do something
that makes a difference for those people who live in the
least-developed countries in the world."
Glaxo will let other scientists try to develop malaria drugs _ free
from royalties or other payments to Glaxo _ from that library of
compounds. They were winnowed down from more than 2 million
screened by hand against potentially dangerous blood samples
containing the malaria parasite by five Glaxo scientists who
devoted a year to the project, a rare effort for free in an
industry focused on profits.
"These are at least reasonable bets to look at," with the compounds
showing some effect against the parasite, Witty said.
Glaxo also plans to give up to 60 outside scientists from around
the globe access to what it called the "first-ever Open Lab," at an
existing company research lab in Spain. Researchers from
universities, foundations and the like will be able to use the
facilities and harness the know-how of Glaxo scientists to try to
develop new medicines for diseases plaguing poor countries.
As part of the Open Lab project, Glaxo will start a foundation to
fund research and idea sharing, kicking in $8 million initially. It
will also expand its existing patent pool of data on various
neglected diseases, bringing in a new partner, the Emory Institute
for Drug Discovery, and turning control over to a nonprofit health
group focused on developing biotech medicines, BIO Ventures for
Global Health. Finally, Glaxo will collaborate with a South African
firm, iThemba Pharmaceuticals, on developing drugs to treat
tuberculosis.
Witty was scheduled to disclose the initiatives during a speech to
the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Wednesday.
Malaria sickens up to 500,000 people a year, leaving many
chronically ill. It is responsible for 1 in 9 children's deaths in
developing countries.
"Malaria is still stalking these kids," said Witty, who has spent
much of his pharmaceutical industry career working in Africa and
Asia, areas where the disease is endemic. "The whole society ends
up revolving around the disease," with children constantly sick and
mothers sometimes too sick to care for them.
Assuming its experimental malaria vaccine _ now in final-stage
human testing _ gets approved, Witty promised its price will be
affordable for poor countries but give the company roughly a 5
percent profit so other malaria vaccines, much further back in
testing, aren't dropped.
"I think many other potential contributors will be put off if the
hurdle is you have to be not for profit" to sell a malaria vaccine,
Witty said.
That means Glaxo's vaccine won't be a blockbuster moneywise, but it
could increase lifespan and bring economic benefit in countries
where malaria leaves people too sick to work.
Glaxo's latest moves follow on Witty's pledge a year ago to provide
access to data on some potential drugs for neglected tropical
diseases, slash prices for drugs in the least developed countries
and put some of its profits from drug sales in those countries into
helping to develop health care infrastructure there, such as by
training new nurses.
Posted: January 2010
