Institute for OneWorld Health in Partnership with Roche
May 22, 2009
A trip to the library may ultimately save millions of lives.
The Institute for OneWorld Health — the San Francisco-based nonprofit drug developer — chose 40 drugs from Swiss drug maker Roche’s nearly 800,000-compound library that it hopes will provide a path to treatments for diarrheal diseases.
Those diseases — like cholera, rotavirus and shigellosis — kill one of every six children under the age of five in the developing world.
Selecting the 40 compounds caps a process that began nearly three years ago, but the institute’s work really is only just beginning. It will take several years to prove that the compounds, which are believed to block the flow of calcium and water into the gut, can work, be synthesized cheaply and win approval from regulators.
“This is discovery stage,” said institute CEO Richard Chin. “We’re at the beginning of the process.”
Still, the partnership with Roche could serve as a platform for deals with other large biopharmaceutical companies at a time when Big Pharma seems to be taking a look at new ways to develop drugs for so-called neglected diseases like malaria, cholera and leprosy.
GlaxoSmithKline, for example, in February said it would create a patent pool where it could share technologies that could help research into 16 neglected tropical diseases. And the National Institutes of Health on May 20 launched a $24 million program to stimulate collaborations with academic scientists working on neglected diseases.
“Everyone is trying to step up in their own way,” said institute spokesman Jim Hickman.
The deal doesn’t cost Roche anything outside the time of its employees, Chin said. There is no exchange of money, no tax benefit for Roche and no royalties if drugs are created from the 40 compounds.
The Institute for OneWorld Health owns the rights to the molecules indefinitely to use against neglected diseases.
“For Roche, the value is seeing how a not-for-profit runs a research program, which is different than how we would run a research program,” said Michelle Browner, global head of pharmaceutical research strategy for Roche in Basel, Switzerland.
The institute and Roche a year ago formally announced the deal, giving the institute access to an older library of Roche compounds.
“It was very, very generous of (Roche),” Chin said. “It’s like their secret ingredients for Coke.”
The institute paid a U.K. contractor, BioFocus, an undisclosed amount to screen the compounds.
It searched for molecules that use what’s known as the cystic fibrosis channel. Scientists believe that the cystic fibrosis gene exists because it may provide protection against diarrhea.
The institute is in talks with other biopharma companies.
“It’s pretty complicated and difficult to use these libraries properly. These are kind of their crown jewels,” Chin said. “(But) it’s clear there’s an interest on their part to work with us.”