The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is using its large financial reserve and expansive clout to encourage pharmaceutical companies to share their important drug studies and discoveries with other researchers, the Seattle Times reports. The foundation’s initiative has ushered in a new and more cooperative approach in commercial drug research, the newspaper adds.
Combined public and private research partnerships could promote the development of new drugs and treatments for various diseases that affect people in both developed and developing countries, the Seattle Times says.
One of the recent successes of the Gates Foundation’s initiative is GlaxoSmithKline’s announcement that the drugmaker will share its inventory of compounds that have the potential to fight malaria. The Gates Foundation provided the grant to Collaborative Drug Discovery, the California-based company that designed the software GSK used to share its inventory.
