A Message from the Founder and CEO
Suddenly, global public health is in the news.  From The New York Times to The Oregonian, newspaper stories have been covering campaigns to eliminate polio, malaria, tuberculosis, river blindness and a host of other terrible infectious diseases that afflict the world’s poorest people. Global health has hit the pages of the Economist, Health, and even People magazine.  Why now? I’d like to think we’ve reached a tipping point—that moment when the fulcrum shifts and incremental change become sweeping change. If I’m right, the historic commitment of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to global health has played a big part in tipping the balance. Now other donors, big and small, are stepping forward.  But that’s only part of the story. A new breed of social entrepreneurs has taken up the challenge of addressing the appalling inequities in health that exist around the world. In thousands of innovative ways, they are applying the strategies used to create the world’s most successful businesses to develop treatments or cures and get them to the people who need them most. And new organizations and philanthropists, such as the Skoll Foundation, Ashoka and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, have emerged to provide social entrepreneurs with much needed support, encouragement and networking.  Together, increased funding and the new spirit of entrepreneurial innovation have generated something equally important: renewed hope that we can make a difference.  At the Institute for OneWorld Health, we’re tapping the extraordinary power of pharmaceutical research to identify and develop treatments and cures for diseases that have long been neglected—diseases that afflict millions of people around the world. Our first success, a drug called paromomycin, which treats a devastating disease called visceral leishmaniasis, will be submitted for approval to the Indian government’s equivalent of the FDA later this year. When we created the country’s first nonprofit pharmaceutical company, I knew we would be able to count on help from many people in the pharmaceutical industry. Still, I never expected the incredible response we’ve gotten from people who wanted to make a difference and simply didn’t know how.  There’s plenty to keep everyone busy. The challenge we’ve taken on—to erase the terrible inequities in global health—is huge. It’s a multi-faceted effort that requires a multi-dimensional set of partnerships to address all of its components. If the latest spate of media attention encourages more people to join in—from foundations and companies to individual donors and volunteers—we will save even more lives and prevent more people from needless suffering.  That would be very good news, indeed.

The Artemisinin Projects Has Launched a New Website
As cutting-edge as the technology on which it is based, a unique collaboration of representatives from academia, biotechnology, and the nonprofit sector is pioneering a bold approach to make safe, effective antimalarial medicines accessible and affordable for people in poor countries.  The San Francisco Bay Area-based partnership is applying a combination of synthetic biology, industrial fermentation, chemical synthesis, and drug development expertise to a very specific need of the developing world. In doing so, the partnership sets an example of how groups with critical knowledge and skills can pool talents to address a major global health problem. A key element of this project is the most sophisticated molecular biology and genetic engineering technology application of basic research principles to a real-world problem. http://www.artemisininproject.org


OneWorld Health Hosts Two Pfizer Global Health Fellows
The Institute for One World Health is honored to have two Pfizer Global Health Fellows, Jeannie Denaro and Karin VanDort-Boomsma join us for a three month assignment in Bihar, India.  The Pfizer Global Health Fellows program is a unique approach to corporate philanthropy and partnership that pairs Pfizer employees with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected diseases.  The program empowers Pfizer employees to apply their skills and experience to address healthcare gaps created by disease and poverty.  Fellows work closely with local health care workers training them in their expertise so the projects can be continued beyond the Fellows tenure in their host country. While in India, Jeannie and Karin will support our clinical operations on the ground, applying their many years of clinical research experience to evaluate and update procedures and methods at our sites to insure good clinical practice (GCP).  Their scope of work will add to the Institute for One World Health’s ongoing capacity building efforts to improve efficiency in a region that is considered a resource-poor setting.

Jeannie Denaro hails from Pfizer-New York City with 15+ years of clinical experience in all stages of trial coordination and site training on an international level. She presently serves as a Senior Clinical Study Manager on an ongoing Phase IV study in ophthalmology, and has traveled extensively.  

Karin VanDort-Boomsma hails from Pfizer-Netherlands, with 7+ years of clinical experience, and currently holds the role of a Senior Clinical Research Associate, overseeing coordination and monitoring activities of Phase I-III studies in Europe for various indications, including oncology and HIV.


OneWorld Health Appoints Two Senior Executives
The Institute for OneWorld Health announced the appointment of two senior executives, James H. Hickman as Vice President, Communications and Brenda Rogers, PHR, as Vice President, Human Resources, strengthening its strategic communications and leadership development capabilities. "We are thrilled that Mr. Hickman and Ms. Rogers have joined OneWorld Health," said Victoria Hale, PhD, founder and CEO of the Institute for OneWorld Health. "Mr. Hickman and Ms. Rogers are pivotal to our organizational development, growth and effectiveness. Each brings a wealth of experience to build our capacity and lead us to the next level.

As Vice President, Communications, James H. Hickman is responsible for leading strategic communications and advocacy initiatives for OneWorld Health. Mr. Hickman comes to OneWorld Health with fifteen years of experience in public affairs, advocacy and public policy addressing health care access. Mr. Hickman has also held posts with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Clinton Administration. Mr. Hickman holds a BA in Political Science and Business Economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Brenda Rogers, PHR, Vice President, Human Resources, is responsible for strategic human resources initiatives and leadership development for OneWorld Health. Ms. Rogers has 21 years’ experience in human resources and has worked extensively with start-ups poised for big-growth as well as large corporations in the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific.  Ms. Rogers received Professional Human Resources certification through the Society for Human Resources Management and Zenger-Miller (now Achieve Global). She completed University of Michigan's HR Executive Program and holds a Bachelor's degree in Communications from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
   

Roll Back Malaria Partnership Gains Ground in the Fight against Malaria
A single word has become the touchstone for hopes that a successful battle can be waged against malaria in Africa: partnership. At a time when funding to fight malaria is still sorely lacking, a kaleidoscope of organizations, governments, businesses and celebrities in Africa, Europe, North America and Asia, united under the banner of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, have made unprecedented gains over the past year.  Read the Press Release >>

Landmark Discovery of a Kaposi’s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Receptor Provides New Perspectives on Disease Associated with HIV/AIDS

Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have identified a critical human cell surface molecule involved in infection by Kaposi’s sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV), the virus that causes Kaposi’s sarcoma and certain forms of lymphoma. Kaposi’s sarcoma is a major cancer associated with HIV/AIDS, and it typically manifests as multiple purple-hued skin lesions.  Read the article >>

Climate link to African malaria
Rising temperatures may partly explain increasing cases of malaria in regions of Africa, new research suggests. Read the article >>

The Institute for One World Health has been featured extensively in the news recently in publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal Europe to The London Times. To read these, and other, articles including “A Day in the Life of Victoria Hale” published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy in April. Read the articles >>

The Institute for One World Health is growing and searching for passionate and talented industry professionals to help us fulfill our mission of developing safe, effective, and affordable new medicines for people with diseases of poverty in the developing world.  For a current listing of open positions in our San Francisco office please visit the employment page on our website. View available opportunities >>

There are many ways you can support the work of the Institute for One World Health please visit the website to find out how you can help.  We extend our thanks to the following donors for their recent generous gifts. Donors Robert and Muriel Angle S. Anthony John & Margaret Billingham Bonnie Cameron Stephen Carr Samuel Casillas JC Cox James Day Riccardo Di Capua Stella Farrell Jack Fincham Diana Frame Deborah Grossman Cynthia Hale & Peter Braun Emel & Thomas Hamilton Robert Hill Jr. Gerald Hyner James Kaplun Paul Kleyman Jeff Kraft Sandeep Vishvanath Kulkarni Nicole Legacki Bonnie & Bernard Lewis Adam Light Todd D. Littlefield Lily Liu Lorraine & Steve Massa Janet McAleney Anthony McCandlish Valerie McGreevy Josh Mittledorf Herb and Janet Montgomery Maggie Morris Anjana S. (Abbott) Phadnis Leslie Platt Jaya Pisupati Aran Ramos Ortega Sandra Schlub Ann Schmidt Roberto Stasi Achim Sztuka Tommy and Wendy Thompson Stephen Wineteer Martha Yee Ulana Zakalak

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