Window Dressing

Last week on October 26, a new organization was launched that will accelerate the development of new treatments for global health, or so it was said.  With much fanfare (and a webcast), WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), one of the 16 specialized agencies of the United Nations (whose hyperbolic tagline is “Encouraging Creativity [...]

Checking the Pool’s Temperature

As my regular readers know, I have written several times on the concept of open source innovation for the discover and development of the products for neglected diseases (e.g., posts of 10/5/09, 8/5/10, 3/10/11) and about one of the more important efforts to make this concept reality:  the Pool for Open Innovation Against Neglected Tropical [...]

Open Source Sesame

One concept for accelerating the development of drugs for neglected diseases (i.e., those whose treatment is not reimbursed by insurance companies) is application of the “open source” innovation model which originated the software industry.  This model is based on easy access to source code, distributed work among unaffiliated programmers, and rights to use (and sell) [...]

Patent Non Grata?

Almost lost in the recent buzz about Sanofi-Aventis’s potential $20 billion purchase of Genzyme was an interesting comment made by Sanofi’s CEO, Christopher Viehbacher.  As noted in the FiercePharma newsletter, he believes patent-protected products are dangerous to Sanofi’s health (FiercePharma Dirty Word).  More specifically, Viehbacher said he wants to find businesses where products are protected [...]