BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH), a nonprofit organisation, has completed 30th research agreement as part of its partnership with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to accelerate development of drugs, diagnostics and vaccines for more than 1.5 billion people suffering from malaria, tuberculosis, and other neglected tropical diseases including dengue in developing nations.

In the journal of Nature reports scientists have seriously underestimated the global incidence of dengue. There have been outbreaks of dengue even in developed nations including Portugal, Russia and smaller ones in the United States. The study predicts there could be as many as 400 million cases of dengue each year.

Jennifer Dent, president, BVGH, said, “While advances in science, medicine and technology have enabled high-income countries to dramatically reduce the burden of infectious diseases, developing countries still struggle with high rates of preventable deaths from these diseases which have a devastating impact on more than one billion people living in poverty and their economies.” Dent further added, “WIPO Re:Search partnerships are advancing the development of new products to address these old and debilitating diseases. Working with our members and partners BVGH plans to broaden these agreements and establish new programs to address the needs of infectious disease researchers worldwide.”

In the latest agreement facilitated by BVGH, pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) agreed to provide researchers at the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi, India with published kinase inhibitors so they can study molecular signaling pathways in the malaria parasite. These pathways can be used to kill the parasite and potentially lead to the development of new drugs to fight malaria.

Recently, another global drug developer Sanofi and the Centre for World Health and Medicine (CWHM) entered an agreement around compounds originally tested for treatment of hypertension. The compounds have been shared by Sanofi and will be examined by CWHM for potential therapeutic use in diarrhoeal diseases, the second leading cause of death and the leading cause of malnutrition in children under five.

BVGH was formed by the Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO) with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and works with the WIPO, a United Nations agency. BVGH identifies partnership opportunities and facilitates the sharing of vital assets and information between private industry companies and researchers in the US and overseas to develop new therapies for unmet medical needs.

BIO President Jim Greenwood praised the BVGH agreements as “concrete examples of moving beyond recognition of the health and economic impacts of neglected diseases and actually putting technology to work in a unique way to tackle these problems.”

“BVGH has played a hands-on, pivotal role in identifying synergies and connecting partners. Through these partnerships researchers working on the most devastating diseases afflicting the poor can and have benefitted from the drug development work already accomplished by the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies,” said Professor Wesley Van Voorhis, Head Allergy and Infectious Diseases Division, University of Washington (UW). The agreements are aimed at a variety of diseases including malaria, one of the most devastating pestilences as a major target. UW researchers are, with assistance from GSK, aiming to identify and develop new anti-malarials against the most virulent strain of the malaria parasite. GSK has shared molecules as well as knowledge and expertise to assist the University in advancing its malaria studies.

BVGH is accelerating to develop new drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics to address the unmet medical needs of the developing world. The organization catalyzes biotech and pharmaceutical industry involvement in global health product development by facilitating partnerships, designing and executing innovate programs and compelling market-based incentives, and synthesizing and disseminating critical information and quantitative analysis.

The WIPO is the leading global forum for the promotion of intellectual property as a force for innovation and creativity to achieve positive change.