guardian.co.uk,
IRIN, part of the Guardian development network, Wednesday 15 August 2012
 |
| A child is vaccinated against tuberculosis in Benin. Photograph: Olivier Asselin/Alamy |
A growing
trend in collaborative health research is creating potentially life-saving
global partnerships between pharmaceutical companies, academic researchers,
disease advocates and even the general public, who are drawn into the world of
science through crowdsourcing.
Dwindling money for research and development, and waning donor patience have forced
global health players to change how they innovate new products and processes.
"For
years, pharmaceutical companies and research institutes … have contributed to
fighting neglected tropical diseases, but often independently or through
smaller partnerships," said Don Joseph, chief executive of the
California-based NGO BIO Ventures for Global Health, which encourages
biotechnology firms to develop drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for neglected
diseases.
Finding an
elusive disease solution independently could mean individual glory, but also
long-term research and development commitments and higher financial risk.
"Generally, drug development is expensive, takes a long time and most
things don't work," Joseph said. Risks have grown exponentially, with
clinical trial costs rising by an estimated 70% between 2008 and 2011.
Partnerships help spread the burden.
"The
challenge is to create projects that are simple and allow a streamlined process
for organisations to participate," Joseph told IRIN. "[Open
innovation partnerships could] significantly reduce trial and error, and lead
neglected disease researchers to that 'Eureka moment' more quickly and
effectively."
Partners –
who might once have been competitors – are increasingly sharing expertise,
intellectual property and financing. Henry Chesbrough, executive director of
the programme in open innovation at the University of California, coined the
term "open innovation" in 2003 to describe this shift. "The
prevailing logic was … if you want something done, do it yourself,"
Chesbrough said in 2011. "This new logic of open innovation turns that
completely on its head."
Researchers
are realising that in the race to discover the next big cure, strength lies in
numbers. "Competitive advantage now comes from having more people working
with you than with anyone else," Chesbrough said.
Global
health initiatives
"We
have been encouraged by the willingness of industry to consider and participate
creatively in open innovation initiatives for neglected diseases and other
devastating illnesses," said Joseph.
The
Re:Search project, a partnership launched in 2011 between BIO Ventures and the
World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo), which comprises 185 UN member
states, calls for a more global interpretation of intellectual property to spur
health innovation and development, and the collaboration of biotechnology
firms, pharmaceutical companies and academia.
For
example, the project will make it easier for a researcher in Tanzania to
connect with pharmaceutical giants for additional biomedical information,
resources and detailed product knowhow, Joseph said. Such information has often
been carefully guarded because of intellectual property rights, but
transparency between partners will be the key.
Crowdsourcing
science
To meet
health challenges more quickly and with tight budgets, an increasing number of
organisations are turning to crowdsourcing competitions to outsource innovation
to the general public.
In 2009,
the international scientific journal Nature teamed with InnoCentive to use
online crowdsourcing to invite solutions and proposals to medical and scientific
problems. InnoCentive began hosting global health challenges in 2006, linking
organisations looking for solutions with problem-solvers who can earn tens of
thousands of dollars. The organisations give prizes for winning solutions in
return for the intellectual property rights.
In 2008, a
challenge by the Global Alliance for TB drug Development (TB Alliance) to
simplify the manufacturing processes of an advanced-stage TB drug earned the
two winning problem-solvers $20,000 (£12,750) each for their ideas.
The
electronics company Nokia recently partnered with the California-based
educational NGO X Prize Foundation, to offer $2.25m to encourage the innovative
use of digital tools, particularly mobile health applications.
"This
competition will enable us to realise the full potential of mobile-sensing
devices, leading to advances in … [the] technology, which can play a major role
in transforming the lives of billions of people around the world," said
Nokia's executive vice-president and chief technology officer, Henry Tirri.
Sensing technologies detect disease and measure health indicators such as
temperature and blood pressure.
Product
development partnerships
In the
1990s, decades before crowdsourcing was applied to humanitarian response,
product-development partnerships (PDPs) tried to accelerate the development of
technologies to fight TB, Aids, malaria and neglected diseases. The TB
Alliance, a PDP launched in 2000, says there are more than 140 partnerships
projects either being developed or in the process of investigating drugs,
diagnostics and vaccines for neglected diseases.
Among
these, the Gavi Alliance, formerly known as the global alliance for vaccines
and immunisation, aims to get more vaccines to poorer countries, and the EU's
innovative medicines initiative is developing new drugs and tests for diseases,
including TB.
Growing
pains
Open
innovation partnerships can take a variety of forms, but in product
development, partners with differing expertise, financing and motives can mean
clashing agendas. Historically, product development has been driven by market
incentives, which include maintaining intellectual property rights, but new
partnerships are proceeding without these guarantees.
"We
have had nothing but positive, eager interactions between members [of the Wipo
project]," said Joseph. "The perceived barrier of intellectual
property as a brake on collaboration in drug and vaccine development is, in our
view, exaggerated."
Open innovation
is still a new commercial approach to partnerships for global health, Joseph
said. "Right now, open innovation seems to be working well to speed the
development of new products, but we're in the very early stages of these
projects. Time will tell."
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