WIPO to co-ordinate global pharma knowledge database
Global consortium will facilitate research into treatments for neglected diseases
A public searchable database of pharmaceutical-related intellectual property assets will be run by a global consortium involving major pharma companies including Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, Eisai, GlaxoSmithKline, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sanofi. They are working with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) and major research organisations. Together they have launched WIPO Re:Search.
With a wide range of medicine information resources, the system, according to a WIPO note, would ‘facilitate new partnerships [for] research on treatments for neglected tropical diseases, malaria, and tuberculosis’. Access would be granted to any organisation backing project principles, which include commitments that intellectual property based on WIPO Re:Search information will be ‘licensed…royalty-free…for research and development on neglected tropical diseases in any country and on a royalty-free basis for sale of neglected tropical disease medicines in, or to, least developed countries.’
Research groups involved include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, and others.
