Medicines 360

Nonprofit pharmaceutical companies have a unique role to play in the healthcare system because many human diseases do not provide adequate profit to attract conventional for-profit companies. Basic disease and therapeutic research is already performed in universities - this is where nonprofit pharmaceutical companies step in to fill a huge void. They have been founded to focus on orphan diseases, neglected diseases and contraception. They must be launched with large philanthropic grants (e.g., Gates). The first generation of these nonprofits depend on philanthropy, whereas the second generation is becoming self-sustaining. OneWorldHealth (OWH; 2000) develops cures for tropical infectious diseases by finding new uses for orphan drugs. Partnerships with pharmaceutical companies are to discover new drug candidates, and scale-up the newest biotechnologies (such as synthetic biology) to create new sources of drugs. OWH also partners for manufacturing and distribution (primarily through corporate social responsibility programs). Medicines360 (M360; 2009) develops important new health products for women, using an innovative hybrid nonprofit-for profit model. These products will be sold in the US and EU, with profits applied to cross-subsidize global public sector provision. M360's first product is a contraceptive – a hormonal intrauterine device (IUD). Its corporate partnerships are primarily for distribution, but the markets are separated: commercial sales are completed by the for-profit, and public sector distribution is controlled by the nonprofit. With family planning now making a huge comeback globally, we can envision a time when the world's poorest women finally have access to the best, safest, and most effective contraceptives.