Overview News Coverage Press Releases Audio and Video eNewsletter
   
   
Institute for OneWorld Health— eNewsletter: July-August 2004
Product Development Progress
      OneWorld Health receives Gates Foundation grant for malaria vaccine

  
  Clinical trial for visceral leishmaniasis (VL) wrapping up
OneWorld Health in the News
      BBC World Service, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Business Gazette  
Announcements and Events
      CEO Hale shares developing world health care solutions at Fortune Brainstorm 2004

  
  Chiron Foundation awards grant to support disease surveillance program in India
Forum: Issues, Trends and Breakthroughs
Message from the CEO

Spring 2008

Fall 2007

Summer 2007

Kill or Cure? Visceral Leishmaniasis

Spring 2007

Winter 2007

Fall 2006

Victoria Hale Named 2006 MacArthur Fellow

Paromomycin Injection Approval

March/April 2006

January/February 2006 Pipeline

November/December 2005 Pipeline

September/October 2005 Pipeline

July/August 2005 Pipeline

May/June 2005 Pipeline

March/April 2005 Pipeline

January/February 2005 Pipeline

November/December 2004 Pipeline

September/October 2004 Pipeline

July/August 2004 Pipeline

May/June 2004 Pipeline

Fall 2003 Pipeline
 



Clinical trial for visceral leishmaniasis (VL) wrapping up.
With three out of four milestones completed for 667 patients—enrollment, treatment and four-week follow ups—the largest Phase III clinical trial to treat VL in India is on schedule to complete six-month follow ups by November. But more work and more support are needed.

VL is an immediate and urgent public health concern throughout the Indian subcontinent, where, with 200,000 people dying annually, most of the disease burden lies. Controlling VL helps reduce co-infection complications presented by India’s rising incidence of AIDS. OneWorld Health expects to file for approval of paromomycin in India in 2005. However, getting the drug to people who need it most present additional challenges that require continued funding, says Victoria Hale in this issue’s CEO Message. Read the history on the clinical trial here.

OneWorld Health receives Gates Foundation grant for malaria vaccine.
In July, OneWorld Health announced receipt of a $1.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for development of a malaria vaccine for the prevention and treatment of malaria, including for infants and children in the developing world.

OneWorld Health has chosen to work with Sanaria Inc., which is developing a novel vaccine approach. OneWorld Health will use part of the grant to fund research and development activities and regulatory consulting. Sanaria will apply its manufacturing expertise to develop purified quantities of a weakened form of the malaria parasite as the basis for a vaccine that meets U.S. FDA standards. This activity augments programs in OneWorld Health’s product pipeline for malaria.
Read the news release >


BBC World Service, July 18-20, 2004

Victoria Hale, CEO and Founder of OneWorld Health, was interviewed by “Health Matters” host Barbara Myers in “Dialogues,” which features prominent individuals in health care worldwide. In the 25-minute interview, Victoria discussed her motivations for creating the Institute for OneWorld Health, and how industry, nonprofits and governments can work together to bring new medicines to people with infectious diseases in the developing world. To listen to the interview, click here.



CEO Hale shares developing world health care solutions at Fortune Brainstorm 2004.
Dr. Victoria Hale joined more than 200 of the “smartest, most influential people” that Fortune magazine and the Aspen Institute convened for this forum in July billed as the “critical intersection of business, technology, and world affairs.”

Some participants include Susan J. Blumenthal, U.S. Assistant Surgeon General, Carly Fiorina, chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard, and Ted Turner, chairman of Turner Foundation and director at Time Warner. At a roundtable, “Delivering medical care to the third world,” Dr. Hale said a major step that could yield immediate positive results is for leaders to focus on developing new therapies for treatable diseases to promote healthy people and economies. Outcomes of these discussions will be featured in Fortune magazine later in the year.

Chiron Foundation awards grant to support disease surveillance program in India.
The Emeryville, Calif., biotechnology company’s foundation awarded OneWorld Health a $60,000 grant to conduct an eight-month surveillance program to determine disease burden and treatment access in communities affected with visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in Bihar, India.

The resulting report will serve as an important foundation for discussions next year with a variety of government, philanthropic, medical and local non-governmental organizations in structuring a comprehensive program to distribute the most effective therapies to ultimately control VL in Bihar. See clinical trial progress in this issue.



Malaria mortality rate in Africa and Asia could double in a few decades as the drug used most frequently is rendered useless.
News-Medical in Disease News 23-Jul-2004. Within the next five years, international organizations and world leaders should begin collectively to contribute $300 million to $500 million annually to create a global subsidy that would make new combination malaria treatments available to the world's poor for as little as 10 cents per treatment course, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Read the full article here. (photo credit WHO/TDR)



In our four years of existence, hundreds of caring scientists around the world have offered to help us in our mission to develop new treatments for neglected, infectious diseases. Many have called our attention to potential new medicines—more than 200 promising compounds to date. This outpouring has led us to explore new and existing models of corporate support to harness this desire to participate in global health.

While evaluating how best to manage this interest will consume the balance of this year, a promising avenue appears to be collaborating with companies that have executive loan or visiting scientist programs. For example, we now need professionals such as patent attorneys and pharmaceutical scientists dedicated to us for meaningful blocks of time to evaluate the promising drug leads that have been sent our way. Your knowledge of people and programs that could lend seasoned professionals to us would be extremely helpful.

On a final note, while we are achieving successes in our clinical trial for visceral leishmaniasis in India, drug development requires considerable funding, even with our entrepreneurial approach. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been instrumental in getting us where we are today, but there is much more that needs to be done that is outside the scope of its grants. In many ways, getting the drug approved in India is just the beginning of a long journey. A cure is not a cure unless you can get it to the people who need it most and in a way that will ensure its safe usage. We are grateful to the Chiron Foundation for a recent grant that will support an extensive survey of the scope of visceral leishmaniasis in endemic regions of India and to help us map strategies for disease control. We still require considerable funds for technical staff and equipment to identify the neediest people and most affected communities, training and education, distribution requirements, and a host of necessities for effective programs.

You can play a role in controlling this deadly disease and saving lives with a gift as little as $50. Please take two steps to support us: tell a friend about our work and please consider a donation to OneWorld Health to help us further our programs. Thank you.


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