Malaria battle goes open source: Glaxo offers free data, lab, expertise to outside scientists

Pharmaceutical manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline announced a plan
to open up its research data and labs to outside scientists in an
ambitious effort to spur more research on malaria and other
neglected tropical diseases. AP Photo: David Longstreath

Pharmaceutical manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline announced a plan to open up its research data and labs to outside scientists in an ambitious effort to spur more research on malaria and other neglected tropical diseases.

The London-based Glaxo is the world's third-largest drug-maker by revenue. The company also announced plans by 2012 to seek approval for the first vaccine against malaria, a parasitic disease carried by mosquitos, which kills a million people every year, the majority young children in Africa.

Glaxo is testing a number of specific drugs against malaria, but it is permitting scientists worldwide to use their massive collection of data on 13,500 other compounds that seem to offer promise against malaria.

Glaxo CEO Andrew Witty announced Glaxo's initiative against tropical diseases, particularly malaria.

"We're deliberately trying to target and stimulate other people into this space," he told reporters from The Associated Press and a few other media outlets on Tuesday. We are "trying to do something that makes a difference for those people who live in the least-developed countries in the world."

The plan will allow other scientists to use that library of compounds to try to develop new malaria drugs — free from royalty claims or other payment demands from Glaxo

Five Glaxo scientists who spent more than a year individually screening potentially dangerous blood samples containing the malaria parasite. Through that process, they narrowed the list of open-source compounds from more than 2 million. In an industry driven by profit, the free, open-source project marks a rare humanitarian effort.

"These are at least reasonable bets to look at," says Witty of the the compounds that show promise against the malaria parasite.

Glaxo also plans to provide up to 60 outside scientists from around the globe access to what it called the "first-ever Open Lab," which will be run at a current company research lab in Spain.

Disease researchers from universities and foundations will be permitted to use the labs and utilize the expertise of Glaxo scientists to try to create new medicines in the fight against the diseases that are devastating the world's poorer countries.