TROPICAL fevers often leave their victims running hot and cold. Critics of the pharmaceutical industry argue that drugmakers behave in much the same way when it comes to medicines for tropical diseases. Many firms have donated products or lowered prices for existing patented medicines. But few have invested seriously in inventing new drugs for poor-country scourges. According to Médecins Sans Frontières, a medical charity, only 1% of almost 1,400 new drugs approved for sale in 1975-99 were specifically for tropical diseases.
One exception is GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which set up a research centre in Spain two years ago to discover new medicines for malaria and tuberculosis. Now Novartis is launching its own research institute, in Singapore, to discover drugs for dengue fever and multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis—especially nasty in the poorer bits of Asia and Africa. Novartis will give the institute access to molecules and scientists from its other businesses, as well as an operating budget of SFr220m ($160m) over ten years.
This might sound paltry compared with the billions that drug companies spend on rich-country diseases, such as arthritis. But Paul Herrling, head of corporate research at Novartis, says such investments could go far, as the firm does not expect to do the costly bits of drug development, such as clinical trials, itself. Rather, it will turn to the likes of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, one of a handful of public-private partnerships that try to encourage drug-company involvement by shifting much of the financial risk of product development away from shareholders and on to government or philanthropic funds.
Other partnerships, such as the Medicines for Malaria Venture and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, to be launched this year, weave together networks of biotech firms, academic centres and charities to move products from test-tube to market. Their work has been given a fillip by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which, on January 26th, announced a $200m grant to tackle “Grand Challenges in Global Health”.
Like GSK, Novartis does not expect to profit from its new venture: rather it argues that society now demands a contribution from drug firms and that its shareholders are happy to supply it. Makes you wonder why they do not work for nothing all the time.