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June 21, 2005
Two alternatives in drug research
News of two alternative models in drug research (alternatives to the generally understood model of private company R&D funds leading to a drug that is patented in order to recoup R&D costs):
1) WSJ.com - Government Offers Funds For New Drug Research:
The federal government is trying to lure pharmaceutical companies into investing in riskier medical research by offering to pay for and carry out early clinical trials of experimental drugs.
The clinical trials are part of an unusual effort by the National Institutes of Health to solve a seemingly intractable problem: the dearth of breakthrough drugs for diseases that have long stymied researchers. The shortage stems from drug companies' aversion to investing in promising but untested ideas that have been cooked up in academic labs. The cost of getting a new drug to market has ballooned, and drug makers tend to pursue products where the biology is known and the pathway to regulatory approval is laid out.
The project could bring pure research out of university labs and into the marketplace, but it faces hurdles in drug makers' reluctance to share information with potential rivals.
2) WSJ.com - Funds Steer Biotech Drugs to Poor:
To remove barriers blocking biotech inventions from reaching patients in the developing world, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is awarding a $5.4 million grant to BIO Ventures for Global Health, a nonprofit offshoot of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
The award was to be made today at BIO 2005, the industry trade group's annual convention in Philadelphia.
The grant aims to help the nonprofit group identify market opportunities in poor countries now considered too high-risk and low-yield for companies to invest in costly new drugs, diagnostics and vaccines. The funds will pay for business case studies of an array of products, starting with tuberculosis vaccines. A century old, the existing TB vaccine is only partially effective, and hasn't prevented the disease from killing about two million people a year world-wide.
The grant could clear the way to making other biotech vaccines, as well as delivery systems to reduce the need for needles, refrigeration or trained personnel. It also could advance new diagnostic tests and drug-delivery mechanisms to enhance health care in poor countries.
Let a thousand research models bloom!
Posted by Ken Jarboe at June 21, 2005 1:01 PM
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