E-DRUG: Drug Groups and UN Offices Join to Develop Malaria Cures

E-drug: Drug Groups and UN Offices Join to Develop Malaria Cures
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[distributed as fair & non-profit use]

The New York Times
November 18, 1999

Drug Groups and U.N. Offices Join to Develop Malaria Cures

By ELIZABETH OLSON

GENEVA -- Major drug companies have joined international agencies in
an unusual approach to keep research in antimalarial drugs from
ending because of the drugs' poor commercial potential.

Each year 300 million to 500 million people become ill from malaria,
and a million die, mostly in Africa. The problem is getting worse
because some established treatments are becoming less effective.

Although the market is vast, "people who need these drugs can't
afford to pay," said Richard B. Sykes, chairman of Glaxo Wellcome,
which plans to join the World Health Organization and the World Bank
in a program called the Medicines for Malaria Venture. The nonprofit
project, with a $30 million yearly budget, plans to develop and register
a new antimalaria drug every five years.

The sum budgeted is only a third of the estimated average $500
million cost of discovering and marketing a new drug, but industry and
public officials fear that without a new approach, no new antimalaria
drugs will come to market.

The joint venture "has been created because the increased costs of
developing and registering pharmaceutical products, coupled with the
prospects of inadequate commercial returns, have resulted in the
withdrawal of the majority of research-based pharmaceutical
companies," said the WHO director general, Gro Harlem Brundtland.
The organization aims to halve the incidence of worldwide malaria by
2010, when the first drugs developed in the new venture should
become available.

Robert Ridley, acting head of the program, said the idea to set up an
independent group grew out of discussions by industry officials on
how to keep drug companies interested in an unprofitable business
area. In the joint venture, the companies will work with academic
researchers.

Officials estimate that the cooperation will still require a cash outlay of
$150 million for each drug developed, in addition to such in-kind
contributions as access to companies' chemical libraries.

Then, Ridley said, the industry would have to help make sure that any
newly discovered drugs were made widely available. "You're not
going to get a $1 million blockbuster drug, but you can make it so it's
not a huge money loser," he said.

So far, 120 research projects have submitted requests for financing
and three have been selected to receive $4 million through next year.
Glaxo Wellcome will work with Bristol University, SmithKline Beecham
with the University of California and Roche of Switzerland with the
University of Nebraska.

In addition to WHO and the World Bank, the International Federation
of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations, the Rockefeller
Foundation, the Global Forum for Health Research and Swiss and
British government agencies are supporting the project.

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