Presentations to be made at Tropical Medicine, Pharma Scientists’ Conferences.
Initial clinical trial results, the state of treatments for diarrhea and other parasitic diseases, and more will be presented by OneWorld Health and colleagues at the annual meetings of the American Society of Tropical Medical and Hygiene and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. The meetings will be held from Nov. 7 to 11 in Miami and Baltimore, respectively.

At ASTMH, an oral presentation will be made on the initial clinical trial results for paromomycin as a new cure for visceral leishmaniasis in India. Dr. Victoria Hale, CEO, will also chair a symposium, “New Approaches to Effective, Affordable Treatment and Prevention of Pediatric Diarrhea in the Developing World” and participate on a panel about meeting the challenge of anti-parasitic drug development. At AAPS, OneWorld Health will emphasize the collaborations and partnerships it seeks with industry to advance drug development for diseases of poverty. At ASTMH, OneWorld Health will be at exhibit booth 16; at AAPS the company will be at booth 175.

Comprehensive State of Infectious Diarrhea Treatments Underway.
A landscape analysis in the field of infectious diarrhea is being undertaken to find ways to reduce deaths, especially among children. As a first step, OneWorld Health will use the findings from a recently held workshop of experts to examine the feasibility of an international diarrheal vaccine effort, with particular emphasis on pediatric solutions.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Cites OneWorld Health in Annual Report.
In its 2003 annual report, President Patty Stonesifer cites OneWorld Health as one of two examples of grantees improving global health. “The Institute for OneWorld Health, a nonprofit pharmaceutical company, has made exciting progress toward an inexpensive new cure for visceral leishmaniasis. This is a deadly parasitic disease also known as “black fever.” If OneWorld Health is successful, we will have an effective way to fight a disease that kills 60,000 people each year. Plans are under way to manufacture the product initially in India, where 75 percent of the world’s cases exist.”

Winners will be announced on Oct. 8 at the World Technology Awards gala ceremony at San Francisco City Hall following the two-day World Technology Summit, which brings together more than 700 WTN members representing more than 55 countries. Read the news release >

New Board Member and Staff Hires Support International Focus.
A new board member and two senior staff hires will contribute international expertise and perspective as OneWorld Health advances its product development programs. In September, Bernardita Mendez, Ph.D., of Santiago, Chile, was elected to a two-year term on the Board of Directors. The former corporate officer of Chiron Corporation now heads a private, nonprofit organization founded to stimulate biotechnology programs in her country.

Dr. Philippe Desjeux of France joined OneWorld Health as Senior Program Officer of Disease Control. He will apply his decades of knowledge about visceral leishmaniasis as the company concludes its clinical trial in India and moves into the pre-launch phase for paromomycin. Fiona Gibbons, a pharmacist by training based in the U.K., was named Director of International Clinical Operations, bringing many years of experience in Africa and the Middle East with global pharmaceutical companies. Read the news release >

CEO Hale to Speak at Tufts Forum on Oct. 20 in New York.
“Private and Public Sector Roles to Spur R&D for Neglected Infectious Diseases” will be the topic of OneWorld Health CEO Victoria Hale on a panel for the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development Forum on Medicines for Neglected Diseases from 1:30 to 4:30p, Wednesday, Oct. 20, Park Central, 870 Seventh Avenue at 56th St., New York. Other panelists include Dr. Peter B. Corr, Senior Vice President of Science & Technology, Pfizer Inc., speaking on “Incentives and Policy Reforms Necessary to Stimulate Activity” and Dr. Jesse Goodman, Director, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, speaking on “Policy, Regulatory, and Public Health Implications of Creating Centives for Developing Medicines to Treat Neglected Diseases.”

More information and registration is available here.

• Pharmaceutical Executive  Charity Starts at Home, Reprint of published article.
  When profit is eliminated as a consideration, the door to what is possible blows wide open. Many compounds that would otherwise be left on the shelf for lack of ROI can suddenly look quite promising. Those possibilities—unshackled from the need to make money—are what motivated Victoria Hale to found the Institute for OneWorld Health, a San Francisco-based nonprofit full-scale pharma company with the goal of bringing to market drugs that will treat diseases of the developing world.
  Download the article in .pdf format (62k)
  
  
• New Scientist , Cures Before Cash, Sept 25, 2004.
  Victoria Hale is a rare breed: a drug company chief on a mission to vanquish diseases of the developing world. In 2000, disillusioned with the pharmaceutical industry, she launched America’s first non-profit drug company. She tells Michael Bond how she persuaded the industry to part with undeveloped drugs that her venture is now trying to turn into cures for some of the world’s most lethal diseases..
  Read the article >
  
  
• UCSF Magazine, Old Drugs for an Old Disease, August 2004.
  Leishmaniasis is named for Scottish physician William Leishman, who first diagnosed the cause of the disease while serving with the British army in India in the early 1900s. It is fitting then that contemporary India, where most of the world’s visceral cases of the disease are found and where parasite resistance to existing treatments is growing, is now home to two promising clinical trials of anti-visceral leishmaniasis drugs.
  Read the article >

Corporations (Matching Gifts)
Amgen Foundation
Pfizer Foundation MG Program
Qualcomm

Individuals
Steve and Marian Anderson, San Francisco, CA
Ben Aune, Belvedere, CA
Louis Beck, Israel
Denis Boisvert, Mountain View, CA
Joy Cavagnaro, Leesburg, VA
Catherine Daly, Ireland
Shirley Dere, San Francisco, CA
Charles Dexter, La Jolla, CA
Gary Gamerman, Vienna, VA
Shamaya Gilo, New York, NY
Emily Goldfarb, San Francisco, CA
Richard/Ginger Goldman, Seattle, WA
Cynthia Hale & Peter Braun, Albuquerque, NM
Jere Goyan/Linda Hart, Kingwood, TX
Stephen/Nancy Hazlewood, San Francisco, CA
Robert & Mary Heine, New York, NY
David Hill, Burlingame, CA
Lawrence Hill, Salt Lake City, UT
Richard Hyman, Seattle, WA
Gordon Irlam, Redwood City, CA
Emily Kagan, North Hollywood, CA
Paul Kleyman, San Francisco, CA
Susan Kute, Louisville, KY
Janet Lai, Palo Alto, CA
Jan Leeman, Palo Alto, CA
Dorothy Levy, San Francisco, CA
Trudy Lionel, San Francisco, CA
Jeanne Mammarella, Santa Monica, CA
Herb Montgomery, Morgan Hill, CA
John Muller, Mountain View, CA
Susan Owen, San Francisco, CA
Julie Parsonnet, Woodside, CA
Andy & Cathie Perga, Los Altos Hills, CA
Valerie Pierce, San Francisco, CA
Leslie Platt, Chester, SC
Michael/Tana Powell, San Francisco, CA
Celia Rifkin, San Francisco, CA
Seth Rosenfield, San Francisco, CA
Carol Savio, San Francisco, CA
Jay Scott, Wynnewood, PA
Lars and Joanne Hasegawa Sjoholm, Santa Clara, CA
Robert & Barbara Sohenuick, Morrisville, PA
Gerald Spindel, San Francisco, CA
Lee Stimmel, San Francisco, CA
Michael Stortz, San Francisco, CA
Vijayakumar Tawker, San Diego, CA
Alan Taylor, San Francisco, CA
Marc E. Weill/Cindy Crawford, San Francisco, CA
Sandy Weil, San Francisco, CA
Sharon Willoughby, Elizabethtown, PA
Elizabeth Wrone, Berkeley, CA
Zhonghua Yu, San Francisco, CA