Novartis offers fruits of center to alliance
Novartis offers fruits of center to alliance
Whatever they find, they’ll let nonprofit develop
A Singapore-based research institute established by Novartis, a drug manufacturer based in Basel, Switzerland, has struck a drug development deal with the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development. Under the agreement, if Novartis’ Singapore facility turns up any compounds that show promise as new TB drugs, Novartis will hand them over to the Alliance.
"What a great Christmas present that was!" says Maria Freire, PhD, the Alliance’s newly appointed chief executive officer. The Alliance was launched a little over a year ago, with the intent of moving compounds that hold promise as TB therapeutics into clinical development. Before assuming her post at the nonprofit organization, Freire developed a highly successful multimillion-dollar operation in technology transfer at the National Institutes of Health.
The Novartis Singapore research center, established in November, will employ 60 scientists full time and will focus on two tropical diseases: TB and dengue fever. Novartis plans to invest $122 million in the center, which is the result of an agreement between Novartis and the Singapore Economic Development Board. "We believe investments of this kind need to be undertaken if significant advances towards the treatment and prevention of these diseases are going to be realized," says Daniel Vasella, chairman and chief executive officer of Novartis.
TB kills over two million people a year, and about two billion people are latently infected with the disease. The majority of causes are concentrated in Southeast Asia. Dengue fever, a mosquito-borne infection that causes fever, severe joint pain, and sometimes hemorrhage and shock, affects some 50 million people across five continents. It is a viral illness for which there is no cure or vaccine.
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