Eisai backs disease fund
pharmafile | July 12, 2013 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Eisai, Japan, TB, partnership
A leading Japanese pharma group says that the sector should see investment in fighting diseases of the developing world as “a long-term investment for future market growth”.
Eisai chief executive Haruo Naito said: “In the long-term, people suffering from disease will be able to overcome their diseases and engage in economic activities, contributing to national income and national wealth and eventually creating a large middle-income class.”
He was speaking about the company’s involvement in a new fund which Eisai says is the first public-private partnership in Japan to help combat infectious disease in poorer countries.
Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT) has been set up by a consortium of five Japanese pharma firms including Eisai, along with the Japanese government.
The elimination of neglected tropical diseases is something that pharma has shown great interest in, and Japan’s status as a pharma powerhouse and major economic player makes it an obvious centre for such activities.
Putting up front the message that “health is an essential factor for sound economic activity” is relatively unusual in such enterprises, which are generally seen as quasi-philanthropic rather than commercial – but such hard-headedness may well help to attract more investment for GHIT.
Eisai points out that improving access to medicine and improving global health is not straightforward, and suggests that such access must be built on four key elements.
These are: availability, affordability, adoption (that is, the willingness to take the medicine) and architecture – which includes basic medical infrastructure, good hygiene and clean water.
“Working alone, the pharmaceutical industry is limited in what it is able to achieve in regard to these four pillars,” Eisai said in a statement. “That is why partnerships with governmental and international organisations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are necessary.”
The path towards finding solutions for some of the commonest illnesses – such as malaria and drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) – which afflict poorer countries is already being beaten by organisations such as GAVI Alliance, the public-private partnership which has all the leading pharma companies as members.
Individual company initiatives include GlaxoSmithKline’s ‘open lab’ at its Tres Cantos research campus for diseases of the developing world near Madrid, which has for the last couple of years been a magnet for researchers outside GSK who are given the facilities to pursue their own projects.
Adam Hill
Related Content
Landmark Bio and Mass General Brigham partner to accelerate translational CGT therapies
Landmark Bio and Mass General Brigham in the US have entered a new strategic collaboration …
Boehringer Ingelheim and LEO Pharma partner to develop treatment for generalised pustular psoriasis
Boehringer Ingelheim and LEO Pharma have partnered to commercialise and further develop Spevigo (spesolimab), a …
PM Society and CIM launch new leadership programme for pharma marketers
The Pharmaceutical Marketing (PM) Society has partnered with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) to …
