Neglected Tropical Disease Research: Rethinking the Drug Discovery Model

Abstract

The 17 neglected tropical diseases prioritized by WHO affect more than 1 billion people worldwide and are endemic in 149 countries, causing significant morbidity and mortality in the developing world. In spite of this, of the 1556 new drugs approved between 1975 and 2004, only 21 (1.3%) were specifically developed for tropical diseases and tuberculosis. Recent decades have witnessed increased activity toward the discovery of new therapies for neglected diseases, with growing involvement from the pharmaceutical industry, academia and not-for-profit organizations. Since resources in neglected disease research field are limited, ‘open science’ and data sharing have received growing interest as means of accelerating drug discovery efforts. This has in turn brought into question the notion of implementing a drug discovery model where there is a greater emphasis on sharing ideas and data, which might otherwise be proprietary. Future Medicinal Chemistry invited leading experts in the field to share their thoughts and opinions on this new paradigm in drug discovery, the challenges associated with open source research, and the pros and cons of intellectual property (IP) protection in driving neglected disease drug discovery and development.