Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline have selected non-profit Bio Ventures for Global Health to oversee the an intellectual property pool that the companies formed last year to assist with the discovery and development of new treatments for neglected tropical diseases.
"By adopting a more accessible approach to intellectual property, the pool facilitates access to compounds and technologies and, most importantly, industrial know-how for organizations that want to conduct research on treatments for these neglected diseases," the companies said.
As the pool's administrator, Bio Ventures will organize disease-specific meetings to "identify the gaps in expertise and intellectual property that currently exist in product development for neglected diseases," they added. "Bio Ventures for Global Health will then help global health researchers work with industry to fill these gaps so that the resources generously made available by companies will be used to create medicines for neglected diseases faster and more efficiently."