Negotiating Barriers to Treatment

Nonprofits work with drug firms to treat diseases in third world
Los Angeles Times
Paul Elias
Feb. 9, 2004

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A world of difference; A nonprofit drug company works to wipe out diseases that plague developing nations but are ignored by Western pharmaceutical giants
Los Angeles Times
Linda Marsa
Oct. 25, 2004

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Too often, pharmaceutical companies avoid investing research and development in diseases that mostly affect the poor. Chagas disease is not an exception to this disappointing trend. Even though Chagas kills more people in Latin America than malaria does, no new drugs have been developed to treat it in the last forty years. These two articles suggest that this lack of progress is due mostly to the drug companies’ concerns that treatments for Chagas will not be very profitable, since they will be marketed only to the poorest citizens of the poorer countries in Latin America.

OneWorld Health, a non-profit organization that identifies as a drug company, is trying to close the gap between pharmaceuticals and Chagas victims. Celera Genomics Group, a “gene-mapping pioneer” had discovered a compound, K-777, that preliminarily demonstrated efficacy in treating Chagas. They were not willing, however, to develop the compound through to the treatment stage. Approached by OneWorld Health, they agreed to donate the rights to K-777 so that the non-profit could develop the drug and hopefully implement it in Latin America. Asked to comment by the Los Angeles Times, the Celera spokesman said, “It made sense for us to donate it…. They were well-positioned to move it forward and we weren’t.”

This apparent generosity still benefits the drug companies. They can receive large tax credits for donating rights to new compounds. Moreover, such seemingly selfless actions improve their image and can be used in public relations.

OneWorld Health is funded through grants, and has received substantial amounts of money from the Gates Foundation to work on treatment development for Chagas and similarly overlooked diseases. While the grants they receive are generous, they are insignificant compared to the research and development budgets of for-profit pharmaceutical companies.

While this partnership is certainly a positive step in the fight against Chagas disease, it does not maximize chances for finding better treatment options, immunizations or a cure. Pharmaceutical companies are not using their immense financial reserves to actively invest in or focus on research to treat Chagas and other similar diseases. Rather, their discoveries and advances in doing so are usually products of other lines of research. This is happily serendipitous for Chagas sufferers, but it is not the most effective or efficient way to help them.