Roche and the Institute for OneWorld Health in screening collaboration
Roche and the Institute for OneWorld Health have entered into a collaboration under which OneWorld Health will screen compounds from the Roche library to identify a potential new drug for the treatment of diarrhoeal diseases, which kill approximately two million children under the age of five in developing countries each year - more than AIDS, TB and malaria combined.
Roche and the Institute for OneWorld Health have entered into a collaboration under which OneWorld Health will screen compounds from the Roche library to identify a potential new drug for the treatment of diarrhoeal diseases, which kill approximately two million children under the age of five in developing countries each year - more than AIDS, TB and malaria combined.
OneWorld Health is working to discover and develop a novel antisecretory diarrhoeal drug to reduce fluid loss and help prevent death from dehydration caused by acute watery diarrhoeal disease. This treatment is intended to be used as an adjunct to Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) and zinc to save the lives of infants and children.
The Institute for OneWorld Health is a non-profit pharmaceutical company that develops safe, effective and affordable new medicines for the developing world. Through the collaboration OneWorld Health will have access to compounds in Roche's library, with the goal of finding a potential medicine to treat childhood diarrhoea in developing countries.
"This new partnership is an important next step in our plans to expand our diarrhoeal disease programme and ensure that a robust pipeline of new treatments is under development," said Dr David Brown, portfolio head and interim chair of the board of directors for OneWorld Health.
In 2006, OneWorld Heath received a grant of US$46m (Euro 29m) from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to expand its unique research on new treatments to complement traditional approaches for fighting diarrhoea. It is conducting searches to license potential drug candidates and has consulted with leading researchers to evaluate promising products and identify key development challenges.
"Roche is pleased to contribute to the efforts of OneWorld Health to find a drug," said Lee Babiss, head of global research Roche Pharmaceuticals. "By bringing together skills and resources from both Roche and OneWorld Health, we believe we have a much greater chance of finding a new, more effective treatment for life-threatening childhood secretory diarrhoea."