The Institute for OneWorld Health depends on the generous support of individuals all over the world to fulfill our mission. Thanks to your generosity, OneWorld Health has been able to accomplish an incredible amount during the past year. Among other successes, we have recently:

• Launched a Phase 4 clinical trial of Paromomycin IM Injection to treat patients suffering from the deadly disease visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in India.
• Formed a partnership with sanofi-aventis to develop semi-synthetic artemisinin for use in treating malaria, which affects millions of people every year.
• Entered into an agreement with Roche to screen compounds from the Roche library to identify a potential new drug for the treatment of diarrheal diseases, which kills approximately 2 million children under the age of five in developing countries each year.

None of this life-saving work would have been possible without philanthropic gifts. Please partner with us to improve global health by making an online contribution, or call us at 415.421.4700 for further information on how you can help.

OneWorld Health, Amyris Biotechnologies and Sanofi-aventis Announce Development Agreement for Semisynthetic Artemisinin
OneWorld Health entered an agreement with synthetic biology innovator Amyris and leading pharmaceutical company sanofi-aventis for the development of semisynthetic artemisinin, a key ingredient in first-line malaria treatments. This partnership will build on technology originated by Professor Jay Keasling at the University of California, Berkeley.  The partnership could help boost artemisinin supply and treat up to 200 million malaria patients each year.

This collaboration aims to create a complementary source of non-seasonal, high-quality and affordable artemisinin to supplement the current botanical supply, thereby enabling millions of people infected with malaria to gain consistent access to lower-cost, life-saving artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). Under the terms of the agreement, OneWorld Health, Amyris and sanofi-aventis will work jointly to develop and design pilot and commercial scale manufacturing processes, with the goal of introducing low-cost, semisynthetic artemisinin into the supply chain and ACTs in 2010.  Read the press release.

Roche and OneWorld Health Announce Research Collaboration to Fight Neglected Diarrheal Diseases in Developing Countries
OneWorld Health will screen compounds from the Roche library to identify a potential new drug for the treatment of diarrheal diseases, which kills approximately 2 million children under the age of five in developing countries each year. OneWorld Health is assembling a portfolio of product candidates to address various aspects of diarrheal diseases, with a special focus on treatments for infants and young children. Roche is a multinational pharmaceutical company that screens millions of compounds annually to find potential new medicines.

With the pediatric death toll due to diarrheal illnesses exceeding that of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined, OneWorld Health is working to discover and develop a novel anti-secretory diarrheal drug to reduce fluid loss and help prevent death from dehydration caused by acute watery diarrheal 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. Read the press release.

OneWorld Health Sponsors Diarrheal Diseases Symposium at PEDICON 2008 to Share Information on Effective Therapies against Major Child Killer
OneWorld Health sponsored a symposium at the 45th National Conference of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics in Orissa, India. The event highlighted clinical and programmatic evidence of the success of zinc as an effective therapy for diarrheal disease, a critical health issue that disproportionately affects impoverished populations.  The program also promoted discussion of diarrheal disease as a major neglected disease requiring heightened awareness, broader education, and increased attention and resources.  The symposium was made possible by generous support from The Lehman Brothers Foundation.  

The speakers at the symposium included:

• Professor Henry Binder, Yale University
  “Mechanisms of action of various anti-diarrheal agents, with an emphasis on Zinc’s Mechanism of Action, and other anti-secretory approaches”
• Dr. Panna Choudhury, Maulana Azad Medical College and Lok Nayak Hospital “Effectiveness trials of zinc: updates on recent trials relevant to India / S Asia”
• Mr. Deepak Saksena, POUZN Project Country Director, India
  “Innovative strategy for the introduction of zinc in India”

View the speaker presentations on our website.

Microbially Derived Artemisinin Highlighted in American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene’s Special Malaria Supplement
An article describing groundbreaking research in semisynthetic artemisinin has been published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene’s (AJTMH) special malaria burden supplement Defining and Defeating the Intolerable Burden of Malaria III: Progress and Perspectives. 

The article, Microbially Derived Artemisinin: a Biotechnology Solution to the Global Problem of Access to Affordable Antimalarial Drugs, was co-authored by OneWorld Health Founder and Board Chair Victoria Hale, Ph.D., and Artemisinin Project partners Jay D. Keasling, Ph.D., of the University of California Berkeley, Neil Renninger, Ph.D., of Amyris Biotechnologies and Thierry T. Diagana, formerly of OneWorld Health and now with the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases. Read the full article here.


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.

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