GSK offers to share data to fight malaria
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the UK-based pharmaceutical company, is to make thousands of compounds with the potential to cure malaria available to non-GSK researchers.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the UK-based pharmaceutical company, is to make thousands of compounds with the potential to cure malaria available to non-GSK researchers.
The company said 13,500 malaria compounds will be made freely available and it will establish an 'Open Lab' at its research centre at Tres Cantos Campus, Spain. It will have space for up to 60 scientists and GSK will provide US$8m of funding for new research into other tropical diseases.
GSK will also enter new collaborations with Bio Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) and iThemba Pharmaceuticals of South Africa to share intellectual property for neglected tropical diseases.
The company has also pledged to price its experimental RTS,S malaria vaccine so that it just covers the cost of the vaccine and provides a small return that will be reinvested in r&d.
In addition, the firm has awarded four new grants totalling US$2.5m to the African Malaria Partnership.
Andrew Witty, chief executive of GSK, said the company had "a genuine appetite to change the landscape of healthcare for the world's poorest people."