BIO Launches BIO Ventures for Global Health With Initial Grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
A bold new experiment, BVGH will work with companies, donors and investors to bring new vaccines, therapies, diagnostics and delivery tools to market in developing nations. The announcement was made at BIO 2004, the biotech industry's annual convention.
"BVGH is unique among public-private partnerships because it is rooted in BIO and it speaks the language of industry," said Carl B. Feldbaum, who is stepping down as BIO's president and is a BVGH board member. "With access to BIO's full range of tools, resources and networks, BVGH can provide companies real strategies to develop products for these underserved markets."
"Biotechnology is a global industry with global responsibilities," explained BVGH Executive Director Wendy Taylor. "BIO Ventures for Global Health will work to tap this industry's immense potential by reaching out to donors and biotech companies with a clear set of market-based tools and strategies to overcome barriers to development."
Market barriers, funding barriers and information barriers have long restricted biotechnology investment in diseases that primarily affect populations outside of North America and Europe. As a result, less than 10% of health research funding is targeted to diseases that account for 90% of the global disease burden. BVGH will work with companies and foundations to identify market opportunities, build new partnerships and secure funding for the most promising new technologies to fight some of the world's most devastating and neglected diseases.
As an initial step, BVGH is creating business cases for specific developing world products; assessing market opportunities; forming partnership and financing strategies; and mapping the clinical, regulatory and distribution pathways. BVGH will promote these business cases to catalyze product development among companies with relevant technologies.
Recognizing the urgent need for capital to support product development, BVGH is creating a new vehicle for funding. With its innovative model of nonprofit sponsorship, grants management and industrial expertise, BVGH will identify and seek funding for the most promising product development projects in the field and is establishing a new mechanism for foundations and other donors to invest in these efforts.
BVGH will publish a quarterly newsletter, BVGH Report, to serve as a resource for biotechnology companies, investors and public-private partnerships working on global health problems, and is launching its website at www.bvgh.org. The idea for BVGH grew out of discussions with companies and foundations following BIO and the Gates Foundation's Partnering for Global Health meeting in late 2002.
"There's great untapped potential for the biotech sector's incredible R&D engine to develop new health solutions for the developing world," said Richard Klausner, MD, executive director of the Gates Foundation's Global Health program. "We believe that BIO Ventures for Global Health can play an important role in bringing more biotechnology companies into the global health field."
About BIO Ventures for Global Health
BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) is a global, non-profit entity that seeks to accelerate the development, distribution and accessibility of biotech products that address diseases of the developing world. BVGH will create new and enhance existing development and investment opportunities by facilitating the exchange of information to match developers to important resources and partners; forming and promoting viable business strategies for needed products; and securing funding for projects through an innovative financing and grants management model. More information is online at www.bvgh.org.
About the Biotechnology Industry Organization
BIO represents more than 1,000 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations in all 50 U.S. states and 33 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of health-care, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products.