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In This Issue
Note from Jennifer
Interview with BVGH
BVGH Featured Program
2014 BIO International Convention Recap
Industry Organization Working in Global Health
 
NoteNote from Jennifer

 

Dear BVGH Friends and Colleagues,

  

BVGH celebrated its ten-year anniversary at the 2014 Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) International Convention in San Diego last month. As we reflect on our first ten-years, we are refocusing and targeting our activities to have an even greater impact on global health. 

 

Through our partnership with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and leading biopharmaceutical companies, we will continue to support neglected tropical disease product development. BVGH is expanding our work to include capacity building through our new partnership with the Nigerian National Universities Commission (NUC). This program was launched in Abuja at NUC Headquarters and at the 2014 BIO Convention with the endorsement of James Greenwood, the President and CEO of BIO and BVGH board member. The BVGH Funders Database has been recognized as a valuable tool in supporting neglected infectious disease researchers' identification of relevant funding awards. These initiatives align with our goal to leverage the assets and resources of the biopharmaceutical industry for global health.

 

This special anniversary newsletter features an interview with BVGH Board Member and past President of BIO, Carl Feldbaum, and highlights BVGH activities at the 2014 BIO International Convention.
   
 
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dent
President, BVGH
InterviewInterview with BVGH
 
  

Carl Feldbaum is President Emeritus of the Biotechnology Industry Organization and has been a member of the BVGH Board of Directors since its launch in June 2004.


 

As a founder and driving force behind BVGH, what was your vision for the organization?


 

BVGH was established to help bridge a great divide between BIO's stakeholders - public and private companies, academic and research institutions - and approximately 6 billion people living in the developing world, especially those suffering from neglected tropical diseases.


 

Historically, our industry, in particular, had done little to address the needs of these substantial populations, primarily due to a lack of information, interconnected infrastructure, and perceived market potential.


 

We founded BVGH to initiate dialogue between our members and the global health community and to encourage industry's involvement in R&D for the many unmet medical needs of the developing world. This included mapping the global health landscape, analyzing market opportunities, and developing business cases for specific products.


 

Speaking frankly, personally, and only for BVGH, I'm disappointed but not discouraged by our progress so far. Perhaps that comes with the nature of this endeavor. If there were one clear path, a "yellow brick road" to accomplish our mission, I'm confident we would have found it by now. In the meantime, too many millions - among them, too many children - still suffer from diseases that might have been successfully addressed and perhaps alleviated by now. More progress has been recorded in defining the barriers to potential global health successes, which I suppose are steps forward. But again, the overall pace has been too slow, actually hard to stomach.


 

How do you see BVGH impacting global health over the next decade?


 

Today, BVGH's mission is the same - but how we go about achieving our objectives has changed. We've seen a shift in industry's perception of developing world markets. More and more, companies are concluding that significant future markets may lie in Africa and South Asia. Companies like GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Johnson & Johnson/Janssen are prime examples: both are investing significant capital in R&D for diseases of poverty, such as tuberculosis and malaria.


 

As a consequence, BVGH is increasingly tasked with creating programs that not only encourage additional companies to become engaged, but also assist companies like GSK and Janssen with their global health strategies. We've become a conduit through which biopharmaceutical companies are connecting directly with organizations and individuals in these markets.  Thus far we've helped broker five agreements between companies and developing world research institutions. For example, the University of Lagos in Nigeria has partnered with Novartis to assess the feasibility of using dried blood spot sampling in Nigerian malaria patients. BVGH's current programs - World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Re:Search and the BVGH Funders Database to name two more - match well with our organization's goals and will continue to promote industry's participation in eliminating enormous health disparities.


 

Again, we are nothing if not persistent. Over the next decade, my hope is to prove much more progress. 
ProgramsBVGH Featured Program

 

 

In June, the BVGH Nigerian Capacity-Building Initiative (BNCBI) was launched to the 129 Nigerian universities. The BNCBI is a joint venture between BVGH and the Nigerian National Universities Commission (NUC) to create a stronger biomedical research and development foundation in Nigeria. Through the Initiative, Nigerian researchers will be trained at international biopharmaceutical companies for three to twelve months. Training may include developing advanced biotechnology skills or gaining experience across the drug discovery and development process.

 

The NUC organized a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria that convened senior management from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) - the federal agency responsible for funding Nigeria's public universities - and the NUC, BVGH, and Nigerian university Vice Chancellors and representatives. BVGH introduced the Initiative's objectives, logistics, and opportunities, which were met with enthusiasm and strong interest from the universities.

 

The Initiative was presented to the NUC and TETFund CEOs and Executive Secretaries, Professor Julius Okojie (NUC) and Professor Suleiman Bogoro (TETFund). Professor Okojie and Professor Bogoro were enthusiastic and committed to supporting the BNCBI. Furthermore, Professor Bogoro pledged to personally move BVGH's request for financial support through the TETFund Board of Trustees and take other necessary steps to secure Nigerian funding for the Initiative.

From left to right: Chinelo Nwosu (NUC), Katy Graef (BVGH), Jennifer Dent (BVGH), and Julius A. Okojie (NUC)

Stay tuned for updates on this important new initiative in Nigeria and reach out to BVGH if you would like to participate.

 

The 2014 BIO International Convention marked BVGH's official ten-year anniversary. Aligning with its mission, BVGH organized several events to increase awareness of the biopharmaceutical industry's engagement in global health, as well as the opportunities available to companies interested in impacting health in developing world markets.


 

BVGH organized two panel sessions at the Convention. Panelists on The Changing Landscape of Industry's Engagement in Global Health highlighted the varied global health initiatives that Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson's Janssen R&D, MSD*, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Kineta, Inc. are participating in. These company activities included performing neglected disease R&D, sending company employees to Africa to train local scientists, and participating in WIPO Re:Search.


 

Africa: The Next Biotech Frontier? consisted of representatives from the USA, South Africa, the WHO and the African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI), and Nigeria. The panel discussed the innovation and partnership opportunities that the African continent holds for biopharmaceutical companies. 

From left to right: Dennis Liotta (Emory University), Solomon Nwaka (WHO, ANDI), Mmboneni Muofhe (South Africa Dept. of Science and Technology), Jennifer Dent (BVGH), Akinbode Agbaoye (NUC), and Richard Gordon (SHIP, MRC South Africa)

BIO and BVGH co-hosted a private session for biopharmaceutical executives with WIPO Director General, Francis Gurry. Francis shared his views on the global IP landscape and the challenges facing the biopharmaceutical sector. He strongly endorsed the WIPO Re:Search consortium and the partnership between WIPO and BVGH.


 

Jim Greenwood led a media event announcing BVGH's partnership with the Nigerian National Universities Commission (NUC) and the launch of its BNCBI program. NUC Deputy Executive Secretary, Akinbode Agbaoye, and NUC Chief of Staff, Christopher Maiyaki, represented Nigeria along with Jennifer Dent, President, BVGH.


 

The media event precipitated an article, entitled, "Partnerships key for up-and-coming African biotechs", that was featured on the front page of BIO World's 2014 Convention coverage. 

From left to right: Aboki Samu (NUC), Akinbode Agbaoye (NUC), Jim Greenwood (BIO), Chris Maiyaki (NUC), and Jennifer Dent (BVGH)


 *MSD is known as Merck in the US and Canada


PharmaIndustry Organization Working in Global Health

 

In 1987, MSD* began its MECTIZAN� (ivermectin) Donation Program to control and treat onchocerciasis (river blindness). It pledged to provide as much of the drug as needed to eliminate the disease. Twenty-seven years later, MSD has donated over a billion treatments to communities in Yemen, Latin America, and Africa. A number of these regions have successfully eliminated the disease.

 

 

In addition to the MECTIZAN� Donation Program, MSD employs a holistic approach to improving global health.

 

  • The aim of United Nations' Millennium Development Goal 5 is to reduce maternal mortality by 75%.  MSD has established MSD for Mothers, a ten-year, $500 million initiative with a goal of ensuring that no woman dies while giving life. Through this initiative, MSD is bringing its scientific and business expertise to work with governments and international organizations to make proven solutions more widely available, develop new game-changing technologies, and improve public awareness and private sector engagement for the improvement of maternal mortality.
  • The Richard T. Clark Fellowship Program for World Health supports MSD employees' sabbaticals at humanitarian organizations. The Program is designed to leverage the skills and talents of MSD employees to help address the health needs of underserved populations. MSD is currently partnering with BVGH to place two MSD scientists at three African research institutions. The scientists lectured on drug discovery and development processes, shared their experience and expertise to advance researchers' projects and identified areas of need at each institution.
  • MSD is also actively involved in the development of products for diseases that commonly affect low-income countries. A founding Member of the WIPO Re:Search consortium, MSD has collaborated with researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to support schistosomiasis drug discovery. In 2009, MSD partnered with the Wellcome Trust to establish the MSD-Wellcome Trust Hilleman Laboratories. Located in India, Hilleman Laboratories' mission is to develop vaccines to meet the needs of developing countries. The Laboratories are currently developing a thermostable rotavirus vaccine and an optimized, low-cost cholera vaccine. In addition, in 2012 Merck joined six other pharmaceutical companies, four research institutions and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to launch the TB Drug Accelerator (TBDA) partnership, which aims to speed the discovery of essential new treatments for tuberculosis (TB).

 
*MSD is known as Merck in the US and Canada