Global health needs demand new approach to drug discovery

"In a new study, 'A New Pharmaceutical Commons: Transforming Drug Discovery', I and my colleagues, Dr Wen Hwa Lee, and Dr Javier Lezaun, call for 'open science' approaches to drug discovery and offer ways forward that would transform how the medical challenges of this century could be addressed more efficiently.

Our research highlights the limits of traditional R&D models focussed on secrecy and the protection of Intellectual Property (IP) rights, and offers a set of recommendations for strengthening pre-competitive and open source practices that can accelerate the race for cures to the world's most harmful diseases."