KNOWLEDGE PORTAL
on innovation and access to medicines

“The COVID Moonshot is a non-profit, open-science consortium of scientists from around the world dedicated to the discovery of safe, globally affordable, straight-to-generic, and easily-manufactured antiviral drugs against COVID-19 and future viral pandemics…Thanks to this unprecedented open collaboration of more than 150 scientists, rapid progress was made to identify key compounds showing excellent antiviral activity against the main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2. These promising molecules are now in pre-clinical evaluation, with the consortium working to advance a compound to first in human studies in 2024” (DNDi, 2023).

Caring Cross is a 501(c)(3) organization “determined to accelerate the development of advanced medicines and ensure access for ALL patients by organizing and supporting a community of healthcare professionals, scientists and engineers, community advocates and business leaders” that “collaborate to develop and deliver curative therapies for infectious diseases like HIV, cancer, genetic diseases, and other serious disorders” (Caring Cross, 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)

“CEPI is an innovative global partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations launched in Davos in 2017 to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics. Our mission is to accelerate the development of vaccines and other biologic countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic threats so they can be accessible to all people in need” (CEPI, n.d.).

CARB-X is a “global non-profit partnership accelerating antibacterial products to address drug-resistant bacteria, a leading cause of death around the world. The CARB-X portfolio is the world’s most scientifically diverse, early development pipeline of new antibiotics, vaccines, rapid diagnostics and other products. CARB-X is the only global partnership that integrates solutions for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of life-threatening bacterial infections, translating innovation from basic research to first-in-human clinical trials. CARB-X is funded by a global consortium of governments and foundations. CARB-X headquarters are located at Boston University” (CARB-X, n.d.).

“CQDM is a non-profit biopharmaceutical research consortium whose mission is to support and facilitate multi-stakeholder collaborative R&D that accelerates translation of leading-edge discoveries into vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics addressing unmet medical needs while generating significant benefits for the Canadian economy...As an established partner of federal and provincial governments, industry, and academia, CQDM deploys R&D funding programs that focus on accelerating the translation of innovation into socio-economic outcomes and health benefits for our population” (CQDM, 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)

“The Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases (CDIPD) is an interdisciplinary research center that targets infectious diseases affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide, but which are largely ignored by traditional drug and vaccine discovery companies because they primarily affect the poor and underserved. The focus of CDIPD is on the parasitic organisms that are responsible for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)...Major efforts of CDIDP are in drug discovery and development including translational research to develop drug leads into clinical candidates” (UCSD, n.d.).

“The Chiesi Group researches, develops and markets innovative drugs in three specific areas: AIR (products and services in the respiratory field, from infants to adults), RARE (innovative solutions and personalized services to improve the quality of life of patients with rare and ultra-rare diseases) and CARE (products and services to support specialist care, personal care and well-being)...in 2018, we changed our legal status to a Benefit Company, realizing the desire to measure our impact on society and the environment, combining the need to generate value for the business to acting as a positive force for the community in which we live” (Chiesi, n.d.).

CDD’s mission is to “provide an unparalleled experience for humanitarian & commercial collaborative research and discovery…CDD provides a modern approach to drug discovery research informatics trusted globally by thousands of leading researchers. The CDD Vault is a hosted biological and chemical database that securely manages private and external data” (CDD, 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).

VIMI is a new Canadian non-profit organization with a mission to “retool the drug discovery and development process and rapidly develop new antiviral medicines for the future, as a public good. Accelerated by open science, and working with its international partner READDI™, VIMI™ will develop multiple “on the shelf” medicines poised to be used at the first sign of an outbreak, so that we can put out the fire before it turns into the next global health pandemic” (VIMI, n.d.).

The CPDD, a consortium led by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was brought together to “discover and develop new drugs for the treatment of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) and visceral leishmaniasis…The consortium discovered and developed DB289 (pafuramidine), the first orally active drug and the first new drug in the last 50 years for the treatment of early stage HAT” (Tidwell, 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)