Partnership To Share Research, Keep IP Rights, On Neglected Diseases

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) signed an agreement with pharmaceutical manufacturer Sanofi on 30 May for a three-year research project on nine neglected tropical diseases that will come with intellectual property rights on research results for both sides, according to a press release from the international organisation in Switzerland.

Sanofi will bring molecules from its libraries into the partnership, the release said, and DNDi and Sanofi will collaborate on research. “The core of the agreement lies in the innovative management of intellectual property generated through the collaboration,” it said, as the IP rights resulting from the partnership will be co-owned by DNDi and Sanofi. Sanofi said it was a “firm step towards greater flexibility in the sharing of knowledge to produce new medicines.”

Publication of results will allow the “wider community of researchers” to access them and the public sector will “benefit from the drugs developed through this agreement under the best possible conditions to ease access for patients in all endemic countries, irrespective of their level of economic development,” the release said.

According to another press release in French, the agreement, signed in Paris, will cover the nine following diseases: leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, human African trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, lymphatic filariasis, commonly known as elephantiasis, onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness, helminthiasis, dracunculiasis, also known as Guinea-worm disease, fasciolosis, and schistosomiasis.