WIPO Re:Search: Accelerating anthelmintic development through cross-sector partnerships

• WIPO Re:Search leverages pharmaceutical assets to advance anthelmintic research.
• BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) facilitates collaborations and capacity building.
• Novartis scientists trained a Cameroonian researcher on advanced biochemistry skills.
• Researchers from Canada and Cameroon partnered to discover onchocerciasis drugs.
• Natural products were screened against schistosomes and soil-transmitted helminths.

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), malaria, and tuberculosis have a devastating effect on an estimated 1.6 billion people worldwide. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Re:Search consortium accelerates the development of new drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics for these diseases by connecting the assets and resources of pharmaceutical companies, such as compound libraries and expertise, to academic or nonprofit researchers with novel product discovery or development ideas. As the WIPO Re:Search Partnership Hub Administrator, BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) fields requests from researchers, identifies Member organizations able to fulfill these requests, and helps forge mutually beneficial collaborations. Since its inception in October 2011, WIPO Re:Search membership has expanded to more than 90 institutions, including leading pharmaceutical companies, universities, nonprofit research institutions, and product development partnerships from around the world. To date, WIPO Re:Search has facilitated over 70 research agreements between Consortium Members, including 11 collaborations focused on anthelmintic drug discovery.

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