OneWorldHealth

Biotechnology and Global Health
22 September 2009

Please do a bit of homework before class (and the readings as well - many, but not too difficult!):
Global Health: What is the global burden of the following infectious diseases?

Worldwide...	People infected	New cases per year	Fatalities / year
Leishmaniasis (kala-azar)
Diarrheal Disease
Malaria
Chagas disease
HIV/AIDS
Total:

How does this compare to the 4 top chronic diseases - the largest cause of death in the world? [PDF]

Worldwide... Fatalities / year

Cardiovascular disease

Cancer

Chronic lung diseases

Diabetes mellitus

Total:

Business Model - One World Health:

A new idea: a non-for-profit pharmaceutical company: OneWorld Health, funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is leading the ' development, testing and manufacture of new drugs against infectious diseases that threaten millions in the undeveloped world'. (NYTimes)

A Nonprofit Model For Drug Development

Criteria for Drug Development: The 7 criteria for drug candidates at One World Health:

Partnerships: How many Biotech companies or pharmaceutical corporations are on this list? Hmmmm ....

Interested in volunteering with One World Health?

Biotechnology in Global Health:

First Success Story: Treatment of Kala-Azar by Paromomycin (and problems and challenges along the way)
Injectable Paromomycin for Visceral Leishmaniasis in India New England Journal of Medicine, NEJM June 2007 ..wow!
Paromomycin IM = a treatment for visceral leishmaniasis, or kala-azar. India, November 2007

Upcoming?

October 02: Nature's Malaria Genome Issue
Opinion: Time to eradicate malaria: Nature, 2 Oct 2002
Feb 04: Clinical trial of new TB vaccine begins

Objectives:

1. What is One World Health, and who is Victoria Hale?
2. What are the main criteria for drug candidates at One World Health (or for many global health vaccines)?
3. Be sure to know the approximate Global Burden of the diseases mentioned
4. Investigate the basics of each of the agents that cause the diseases mentioned .
5. Be able to list at least one approach for treating the diseases mentioned above.

Readings

1. One World health and Neglected Diseases NY Times, July 31, 2006

2. All together nowJul 16th 2009 The Economist New initiatives to cure diseases of the poor world

3. Better Bananas, Nicer Mosquitoes NY Times, December 6, 2005. If Bill Gates was your Biol540 prof, you would be getting MILLION$ to make your Team Projects a reality! Check out the projects just funded by the B&MG foundation!

4. Oxymoron No More: The Potential Of Nonprofit Drug Companies To Deliver On The Promise Of Medicines For The Developing World Victoria G. Hale, Katherine Woo and Helene Levens Lipton, Health Affairs November 2005

5. Paying attention to unmet needs C&EN Sept 2002

6. Injectable Paromomycin for Visceral Leishmaniasis in IndiaNew England Journal of Medicine, NEJM June 2007

Please read the abstract only: something to think about for YOUR future?
The Lancet, June 2003 7. Where and why are 10 million children dying every year? More than 10 million children die each year, most from preventable causes, and almost all in poor countries... (...and why are you OK with that?)

8. Towards Millennium Development
Goal FourThe second child survival revolution

Optional: Glamour Magazine, Woman of the Year! November 2007! (ooh, scary photo)

Worldwide...	Fatalities / year
Cardiovascular disease
Cancer
Chronic lung diseases
Diabetes mellitus
Total:

Topics in Biotechnology