There’s been a lot of talk about the Pool for Open Innovation against Neglected Tropical Diseases, but we understand that many product developers are still wondering exactly how it will benefit them. No more! Today, we launched www.ntdpool.org, a website that will enable potential participants to learn more about the Pool, its mission, and the patents and know-how it contains. This new site is a resource to provide clarification on exactly what is in the Pool and how users can access its deep resources.
There are thousands of patents in the Pool for Open Innovation, and contributors include GlaxoSmithKline, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Medicines for Malaria Venture, the University of California, Berkeley, and the California Institute of Technology. These patents cover a wide swath of intellectual property for use against neglected tropical diseases ranging from small molecules and their formulations, uses, and processes to RNAi technology and contributions around malaria research.
As the non-profit administrator of the Pool for Open Innovation, one of our responsibilities is to deepen the Pool by adding new contributors and patents. But even more important is our responsibility to ensure that the resources available are accessed by the capable innovators – the product development partnerships, academic researchers, and companies that can take what is in the Pool and turn it into life-saving treatments.
As a user, if you find a resource that you would like – whether a patent or related know-how – you can submit a request to BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) through the site. BVGH will review each request, looking at the potential user’s scope of work, the nature of its resources and capabilities, and other relevant factors. Additionally, users must agree to abide by the Pool’s core principles. The Pool is guided by two key principles – licenses for patents and know-how will include therapeutics to treat the 16 neglected tropical diseases identified by the World Health Organization, and must be royalty free for sales in the world’s least developed countries. Additionally, if the know-how or patents sought by the end user are not listed as available, a general request can be sent to BVGH staff and they will work with the resource providers to see if they will add the requested resources to the Pool.
Shortly, we will be adding a search function to the site that will allow potential users to search the database of patents by patent number and keywords in the title and abstract (many of which include specific compound names, classes, and neglected disease relevance), or simply browse.
From a practical approach, free access to patents and know-how can clearly save time and money. Many of the resources in the Pool have had millions of dollars invested in their development. Access to these patents and know-how for non-neglected disease products could easily have fees and royalties in the ten to hundreds of millions of dollars. This is an unprecedented opportunity to build on these investments to develop the next generation of drugs that are so desperately needed by the world’s poor today.
We encourage you to visit the site and take a look around. If we can help you better understand what’s there, please let us know.
To learn more about the Pool, its contents, and how to access them, visit www.ntdpool.com. Contact us at ntdpool@bvgh.org with any questions or concerns.
Jennifer Manganello is Associate, External Affairs, at BIO Ventures for Global Health.