KNOWLEDGE PORTAL
on innovation and access to medicines

The Finlay Vaccine Institute’s mission is to “investigate, develop, produce, evaluate, negotiate and commercialize knowledge, technologies and products, especially vaccines; directing all its technological, human and financial resources in pursuit of promoting the Advanced Vaccine Program, economic growth and development and the quality of life of the Cuban population” (The Finlay Vaccine Institute, n.d.).

“The ICGEB is a unique intergovernmental organisation initially established as a special project of UNIDO. Autonomous since 1994, it runs over 45 state-of-the-art laboratories, in Trieste, Italy, New Delhi, India and Cape Town, South Africa and forms an interactive network with almost 70 Member States, with operations aligned to those of the United Nations System. It plays a key role in Biotechnology promoting Research excellence, Training, and Technology Transfer to industry, to contribute in concrete terms to sustainable global development” (ICGEB, n.d.).

“The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) is a nonprofit International Organization established in 1997 as an initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). We are among the few organizations in the world dedicated to vaccines and vaccination for global health. Our mission: Discover, develop and deliver safe, effective and affordable vaccines for global public health. IVI is headquartered in Seoul and hosted by the Republic of Korea with 39 member countries and the WHO on its treaty” (IVI, n.d.).

This organization was included for its participation in non profit R&D for Neglected Diseases (Vieira M, Kimmitt R and Moon S.  F1000Research 2021, 10:190)

“The Longitude Prize is looking for a team of innovators from anywhere in the world to invent an affordable, accurate, fast and easy-to-use test for bacterial infections that will allow health professionals worldwide to administer the right antibiotics at the right time. £8 million will be awarded to the winner, to help tackle the global problem of antibiotic resistance…Delivered day-to-day by Challenge Works, the prize is supported by a committee of experts from across the scientific, clinical and industrial world” (Longitude Prize, n.d.).

This initiative was selected based on its inclusion in the report “RE:ROUTE, A map of the alternative biomedical R&D landscape”, (Kiddell-Monroe, Greenberg, and Basey 2016).

This organization was included for its participation in non profit R&D for Neglected Diseases (Vieira M, Kimmitt R and Moon S.  F1000Research 2021, 10:190)

“IAVI is a nonprofit scientific research organization that develops vaccines and antibodies for HIV, tuberculosis, emerging infectious diseases (including COVID-19), and neglected diseases. Our mission is to translate scientific discoveries into affordable, globally accessible public health solutions…IAVI accelerates scientific discovery and development by fostering unique collaborations among academia, industry, local communities, governments, and funders to explore new and better ways to address public health threats that disproportionately affect people living in poverty” (IAVI, n.d.).

“IPM is dedicated to providing women with affordable and self-initiated HIV-prevention strategies they can use to protect their own health. Founded in 2002 as a product development partnership (PDP), IPM has become an important partner in the microbicide field. Since our inception, IPM has focused our efforts on developing antiretroviral (ARV)-based microbicides in collaboration with our partners…IPM also engages and collaborates with advocates and global health leaders to raise awareness about microbicides and HIV prevention products worldwide. Through our working partnerships at the local and national level in developing countries, IPM has helped build health research infrastructure in parts of the world where the need for health research is greatest” (IPM, n.d.).

“Just Biotherapeutics was founded in 2014 by an experienced team spanning the fields of protein, process and manufacturing sciences to help complete a mission that began in the early 1980’s. This mission has been to solve the scientific and technical hurdles blocking access to life changing protein therapeutics…In 2019, Just joined forces with Evotec SE and now, as a combined organization, “Just – Evotec Biologics” is creating global access through evolutionary technology. Connecting the Just biologics platform “J.DESIGN” with the strong therapeutic and preclinical biology of Evotec creates a powerful, integrated approach to biotherapeutics” (Just – Evotec Biologics, n.d.).

Kaggle is “an online platform for data-mining and predictive modeling competitions” (Goetz, 2013). “[Participants] compete to solve complex data science problems. Kaggle is free to all data scientists; [the] fees are paid by the owner of the data problem” (Kaggle, 2015).

This initiative was selected based on its inclusion in the report “RE:ROUTE, A map of the alternative biomedical R&D landscape”, (Kiddell-Monroe, Greenberg, and Basey 2016)

M4K Pharma’s mission is to “use open science to revolutionize how affordable new treatments are discovered and developed. By aggregating and aligning the work of global academics, foundations and pharma/biotech researchers, we will advance new cures for childhood diseases not well served by current business models…We believe that open science can lead to affordable medicines by fostering collaborations and accelerating medical discoveries. We are committed to sharing the scientific knowledge derived from our programs and will not limit access to our research by filing patents. We will encourage and assist our partners to publish and disseminate their research widely” (M4K Pharma, n.d.).

“Medicines Development for Global Health (MDGH) is an independent not-for-profit company dedicated to the development of medicines for those who need them most. We address health inequity by researching, developing and delivering new and improved medicines for diseases disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income countries. MDGH was founded by Mark Sullivan in 2005. Since then, we have demonstrated that we can assemble the resources, collaborators and financing required to develop and register new medicines for infectious diseases” (MDGH, n.d.).