On May 23, 2017, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced a new five-year strategic plan for WIPO Re:Search to guide that initiative's activities in the fight against neglected tropical diseases, malaria, and tuberculosis. WIPO Re:Search is a consortium of public and private sector organizations that was established in 2011 by WIPO and BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) (see "Public/Private Consortium Seeks Treatments for Neglected Tropical Diseases"). The consortium allows member companies and organizations to share their intellectual property, compounds, expertise, facilities, and know-how royalty-free with qualified researchers worldwide to promote the development of new drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics for the treatment of neglected tropical diseases, malaria, and tuberculosis. In addition to WIPO and BVGH, a non-profit organization that seeks to accelerate the development of novel drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics addressing the unmet medical needs of the developing world, the consortium now consists of 126 members in 35 countries.
The new strategic plan includes new research, capacity building, and outreach efforts. According to BVGH President Jennifer Dent, the new strategic plan will allow BVGH to "prioritize and provide enhanced support to the most promising product development collaborations within the WIPO Re:Search portfolio," as well as support the development of research and IP management capacity at member organizations in low- and middle-income countries, and increase public visibility around the role of WIPO Re:Search in global health innovation.
While observing that "[t]here is continuing debate about IP, innovation and access, with disagreement as to whether IP is a barrier or a facilitator," the strategic plan notes that "WIPO Re:Search contributes to the policy discussion by providing tangible evidence that the IP frame work facilitates access to health technologies and thus enables more R&D, even in neglected fields." The tangible evidence of WIPO Re:Search's impact includes the facilitation of 112 collaborations, of which 34 are ongoing, and an increase in membership from 31 companies and organizations to the current 126 members. The new plan sets out four strategic goals:
1. Use IP assets to advance R&D for NTDs, malaria, and TB through collaborations.
2. Accelerate the advancement of promising compounds or leads.
3. Enhance global capacity for IP management and biomedical R&D.
4. Communicate the beneficial role of IP in innovation for NTDs, malaria, and TB.
The consortium notes that "[t]o implement this Strategic Plan, WIPO Re:Search will need to substantially expand [its] funding base," with the initiative having 2016 expenditures of 1.7 million Swiss Francs. According to the strategic plan, funding for those expenditures came from allocations from WIPO's regular budget, contributions from Member States through the Funds-in-Trust program (Governments of Australia and Japan), and substantial contributions from the funding Members of WIPO Re:Search: Eisai, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck KGaA, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi, and Takeda.
