Policy Innovations

Name
Shared Compound Libraries A shared compound library is a database of information on specific pharmaceutical compounds or a collection of the physical compounds available publically or to a strategic set of partners. Many companies and research institutes have private libraries for their own staff; however, revealing the characteristics of various compounds may encourage research groups to search for new clinical applications for existing compounds.
Bio Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) Business Cases BVGH profiled successful examples of global health R&D in a series of case studies that present opportunities for greater participation of biotechnology companies in global health. The case studies reveal the progress to date for research in specific diseases and also provide market assessments of the market potential of R&D and the potential return on investment.
Information Sharing for R&D Portfolios Both Product Development Partnerships (PDPs) and mainstream pharmaceutical companies engage in portfolio management to spread the risk of their research investments. For example, the research portfolio of the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) was established with 21 projects at various R&D stages and includes mini-portfolios with GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Genzyme and Sanofi-Aventis. Some PDPs allow biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies to handle the pharmacology of their projects while academic collaborators lend their research and expertise.
The Synaptic Leap (TSL) The Synaptic Leap (TSL) is an open source online biomedical research community that was launched in November of 2005 in partnership with the Tropical Disease Initiative. TSL’s mission is to facilitate a network of online communities that enable scientists to collaborate with one another and share their research on tropical diseases. Since there is a lower traditional profit incentive for R&D for tropical disease, these diseases are good candidates for open source research as there is a lesser motivation to keep information private.
Pool for Open Innovation against Neglected Tropical Diseases The Pool for Open Innovation, which is administered by Bio Ventures for Global Health, began with GSK's efforts to create a “Patent Pool” of intellectual property for new medicines to treat neglected tropical diseases. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, universities and non-governmental organizations are encouraged to donate small molecule compounds or process patents for neglected tropical diseases. Open access to this information may accelerate the development and production of new products and formulations for use in the developing world.
Medicines Patent Pool The Medicines Patent Pool, established by UNITAID, strives to increase access to newer antiretroviral medicines (ARVs) for the treatment of HIV/AIDS and to encourage the development of adapted formulations of these medicines. UNITAID’s approach is based on creating ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ patent pools. The goal of the upstream patent pool is to enable the creation of adult and pediatric fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) that are suitable for use in developing countries. The downstream pool aims to facilitate the generic manufacture of existing ARVs in order to lower their costs.
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) As university research is ‘upstream’ in the technology development process, the decisions universities make when patenting and licensing their technologies can determine whether individuals in developing countries can access the end products of their research. Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) is a coalition of academic institutions in the US, the UK and Canada who believe that the research, patenting and licensing policies of universities are restricting access to medicines in the developing world.
Indian Open Source Drug Discovery Initiative The Indian Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) Initiative is a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Team India Consortium with global partnership whose aim is to accelerate the development of new drugs to treat neglected tropical diseases. Based on other open source models used in information technology and biotechnology, this initiative would attract scientists and researchers across the world to collaborate and help aggregate the biological and genetic information available for the development of new drugs needed for neglected diseases.
Prize Fund to Support Innovation and Access for Donor Supported Markets Bangladesh, Barbados, Bolivia and Suriname propose a Prize Fund that would reward developers who license innovations to select patent pools. The countries suggest that the best way to induce valuable innovation for global health is to divorce the reward from product prices and sales. The reward payments would be divided among competitors and proportional to the incremental health benefit offered by the products.. The proposal calls for donors to set aside 10% of their development assistance (DAH) for health that is used to procure drugs for the fund.
Patent Fees ("Green IP") The Green IP Project proposes redirecting a part of patent related monetary flows to R&D while also offering “patent insurance.” The proposal suggests imposing an additional fee on patent applications, called an “insurance premium,” and using the funds collected to finance R&D for neglected disease. In return patent applicants would be protected against the risk of a compulsory license in addition to facing lesser registration fees and a fee waiver for extending their patents to new regions.

Name

A shared compound library is a database of information on specific pharmaceutical compounds or a collection of the physical compounds available publically or to a strategic set of partners. Many companies and research institutes have private libraries for their own staff; however, revealing the characteristics of various compounds may encourage research groups to search for new clinical applications for existing compounds.

Bio Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) Business Cases

BVGH profiled successful examples of global health R&D in a series of case studies that present opportunities for greater participation of biotechnology companies in global health. The case studies reveal the progress to date for research in specific diseases and also provide market assessments of the market potential of R&D and the potential return on investment.

Information Sharing for R&D Portfolios

Both Product Development Partnerships (PDPs) and mainstream pharmaceutical companies engage in portfolio management to spread the risk of their research investments. For example, the research portfolio of the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) was established with 21 projects at various R&D stages and includes mini-portfolios with GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Genzyme and Sanofi-Aventis. Some PDPs allow biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies to handle the pharmacology of their projects while academic collaborators lend their research and expertise.

The Synaptic Leap (TSL)

The Synaptic Leap (TSL) is an open source online biomedical research community that was launched in November of 2005 in partnership with the Tropical Disease Initiative. TSL’s mission is to facilitate a network of online communities that enable scientists to collaborate with one another and share their research on tropical diseases. Since there is a lower traditional profit incentive for R&D for tropical disease, these diseases are good candidates for open source research as there is a lesser motivation to keep information private.

Pool for Open Innovation against Neglected Tropical Diseases

The Pool for Open Innovation, which is administered by Bio Ventures for Global Health, began with GSK's efforts to create a “Patent Pool” of intellectual property for new medicines to treat neglected tropical diseases. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, universities and non-governmental organizations are encouraged to donate small molecule compounds or process patents for neglected tropical diseases. Open access to this information may accelerate the development and production of new products and formulations for use in the developing world.

Medicines Patent Pool

The Medicines Patent Pool, established by UNITAID, strives to increase access to newer antiretroviral medicines (ARVs) for the treatment of HIV/AIDS and to encourage the development of adapted formulations of these medicines. UNITAID’s approach is based on creating ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ patent pools. The goal of the upstream patent pool is to enable the creation of adult and pediatric fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) that are suitable for use in developing countries. The downstream pool aims to facilitate the generic manufacture of existing ARVs in order to lower their costs.

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM)

As university research is ‘upstream’ in the technology development process, the decisions universities make when patenting and licensing their technologies can determine whether individuals in developing countries can access the end products of their research. Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) is a coalition of academic institutions in the US, the UK and Canada who believe that the research, patenting and licensing policies of universities are restricting access to medicines in the developing world.

Indian Open Source Drug Discovery Initiative

The Indian Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) Initiative is a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Team India Consortium with global partnership whose aim is to accelerate the development of new drugs to treat neglected tropical diseases. Based on other open source models used in information technology and biotechnology, this initiative would attract scientists and researchers across the world to collaborate and help aggregate the biological and genetic information available for the development of new drugs needed for neglected diseases.

Prize Fund to Support Innovation and Access for Donor Supported Markets

Bangladesh, Barbados, Bolivia and Suriname propose a Prize Fund that would reward developers who license innovations to select patent pools. The countries suggest that the best way to induce valuable innovation for global health is to divorce the reward from product prices and sales. The reward payments would be divided among competitors and proportional to the incremental health benefit offered by the products.. The proposal calls for donors to set aside 10% of their development assistance (DAH) for health that is used to procure drugs for the fund.

Patent Fees ("Green IP")

The Green IP Project proposes redirecting a part of patent related monetary flows to R&D while also offering “patent insurance.” The proposal suggests imposing an additional fee on patent applications, called an “insurance premium,” and using the funds collected to finance R&D for neglected disease. In return patent applicants would be protected against the risk of a compulsory license in addition to facing lesser registration fees and a fee waiver for extending their patents to new regions.

Discover Policy Innovations

Our Policy Innovations page allows you to browse the dozens of proposed policies to accelerate product development for global health. You can use the search field to look for specific policies or you can simply browse through the entire list. The Innovations are divided into Push and Pull proposals. In other words, do the innovations help pay or manage R&D costs up front or do they present a reward for the development of the final product? The list is also divided into 8 types of Innovations which correspond to what specific area of R&D the Innovation intends to improve.

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Our Policy Innovations page allows you to browse through the dozens of policy innovations that have been proposed to accelerate global health R&D. You can use the search panel on the right side of the screen to view innovations by type or you can simply browse through the full list. If you click on the "+" button you can expand the list of innovation types.

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