Nature
Volume 457    Number 7232 pp935-1046   19 February 2009
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v457/n7232/
News
Drug patent plan gets mixed reviews
GlaxoSmithKline’s bid to tackle neglected diseases receives a muted response from the rest of the industry.
[This article summaries reactions to GSK’s patent pool idea announced in a speech earlier in February at Harvard Medical School by CEO Andrew Witty. The article presents a sidebar snapshot of programs and actions by other firms]:
A selection of other drug firms’ efforts on neglected tropical diseases.
Natasha Gilbert

Pfizer
– Donates medicines through individual deals with governments and non-governmental organizations.
– Mobilize Against Malaria initiative in Ghana, Kenya and Senegal to improve access to malaria treatment.
– International Trachoma Initiative has donated 54 million antibiotic treatments to patients in 13 countries

Hoffmann-La Roche
– Expert assistance given to the Medicines for Malaria Venture, a non-profit organization aimed at discovering malaria drugs.
– Donated to the Brazilian government all rights and technology to manufacture benznidazole for the treatment of Chagas’ disease.
– Technology-transfer initiative helps developing countries produce their own generic HIV medicines.

Novartis
– Provides not-for-profit treatments for dengue fever, tuberculosis and malaria in countries where endemic.
– Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases in Singapore established in 2002 as a public-private partnership with the Singapore Economic Development Board.
– Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health in Siena, Italy, established in 2007 to develop vaccines for neglected diseases.

Sanofi-aventis
– Sells key medicines at cost to governments and aid agencies.
– In 2007 spent €14 million (US$18 million) on improving access to medicines in developing countries; €4 million on neglected tropical diseases; and more than €20 million on R&D for malaria, leishmaniasis and tuberculosis.

Bayer
– Donates drugs for sleeping sickness and Chagas’ disease to the World Health Organization.
– Donates antibiotics for tuberculosis to the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development.
– Bayer CropScience donates mosquito nets and insecticides in key countries.