New Therapies for Diseases of Poverty
Biopharmaceutical companies have the technologies to develop many of the new therapies for neglected diseases, including:
- Fast, screening techniques (high-throughput screening) and new drug-finding technologies
- Extensive libraries of chemical compounds for screening
- Infrastructure and expertise in small molecule drug discovery
- Persistent and highly-knowledgeable employees who care about solving pressing health needs
Harnessing technical and human expertise to combat neglected diseases
Today, biotechnology companies have become the leading innovators of small-molecule drugs. Many of these drugs can be produced cheaply and targeted towards neglected diseases.
In the BVGH publication, Closing the Global Health Innovation Gap: A Role for the Biotechnology Industry in Drug Discovery for Neglected Diseases , we found that some of the drug targets the biopharmaceutical industry has already discovered can be harnessed against the disease-causing pathogens of the developing world.
Here are just a few examples of potential target classes:
| Target |
Current Applications in the Biotechnology Industry |
Potential Applications in the Developing World |
| Kinases |
Cancer |
Malaria, tuberculosis |
| Proteases |
HIV, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure |
Malaria, tuberculosis |
| Ion channels |
Pain, high blood pressure, epilepsy |
Malaria |
| Phosphodiesterases |
Pulmonary arterial hypertension, erectile dysfunction |
Malaria, human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) |
| Farnesyltransferases |
Cancer |
Malaria, human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) |