GHIT Fund enters 10 new partnerships to expand R&D for neglected diseases

The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund, a Japanese public-private partnership, now has 10 new funding partnerships with global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to increase investments in research and development for neglected diseases, according to a press release.

“We are excited to welcome these new funding partners … who have joined forces with the [Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT)] Fund because of their own unique commitments to global health, as well as their confidence that working together will transform R&D,” BT Slingsby, MD, PhD, MPH, executive director and CEO of GHIT, said in the release. “The partnerships will not only broaden our scope, but also increase our ability to reach the world’s most vulnerable people with lifesaving technology.”

The new collaborations include:

a full partnership with Fujifilm Corp., a global health care company recently awarded a GHIT grant for a rapid diagnostic test that can detect tuberculosis in patients with HIV;
an associate partnership with Otsuka Pharmaceutical, a leader in TB research that is credited with discovering and developing delamanid — one of the only approved treatments for multidrug-resistant TB; and
affiliate partnerships with GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, Merck, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp., Nipro Corp., and Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, and a sponsorship from Salesforce.com.

According to the release, several of GHIT Fund’s R&D projects have demonstrated progress in clinical trials. Over the last year, two drug candidates for malaria, a new pediatric formulation for schistosomiasis treatment and a malaria vaccine entered phase 1 or phase 2 trials.

Since the organization was established 3 years ago, GHIT has obtained a portfolio of drugs, vaccines and diagnostics.

“With these new partnerships, in addition to last month’s pledge from the Government of Japan to contribute $130 million to GHIT’s/United Nations Development Programme’s replenishment, recent progress has the potential to accelerate these tools even faster into the hands of the doctors, nurses and patients who need them most,” Kiyoshi Kurokawa, MD, chairman of the board at GHIT, said in the release. “We’ll be working with our partners from industry, the Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust to realize our full replenishment, and with that, our opportunities to change the face of R&D for global health are boundless.”

Disclosure: Infectious Disease News was unable to confirm relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.