BIO Ventures for Global Health

BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) is a non-profit organization that focuses on global health. It was founded in 2004, spun out from the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the largest organization representing the biotechnology industry, academic institutions, and state biotechnology centers internationally.

BVGH’s stated mission is “to save lives by accelerating the development of novel biotechnology-based drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics to address the unmet needs of the developed world.” They focus on neglected tropical diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis, which, according to the World Health Organization , affect 1 billion people worldwide each year.

BVGH is responsible for a number of studies and reports on biotechnology and global health, including Global Health Innovators: A Collection of Case Studies, the Global Health Primer, and “Leveraging biotech’s [...] discovery expertise for neglected diseases,” an editorial in Nature Biotechnology. BVGH is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Objectives

BVGH works to achieve three key objectives:

Synthesize and disseminate critical information and analysis: BVGH produces a number of reports each year aimed at providing critical information for the both the biotechnology and global health communities that are aimed at increasing collaboration. Some examples are listed below in publications and include reference documents, white papers, case studies, and market analyses.

Increase biotechnology and global health innovator collaborations and partnerships: BVGH works to increase collaboration between the biotechnology industry, product development partnerships (PDPs), academia, philanthropists, and other major players in the field of global health. Efforts are focused on direct outreach and a major conference, the Partnering for Global Health Forum.

Design & advocate for market-based incentives: A major barrier to biotechnology companies’ participation in global health is the lack of an effective market for products that will benefit the people of the world that live on less than $2 a day. BVGH has played a role in the design of two major market incentives – the Advanced Market Commitment and Priority Review Vouchers.

Publications

BVGH publishes a number of items each year including articles, reports, briefs, and web materials.

Notable recent publications include:

Global Health Primer, 2009 Edition Identifies neglected diseases that cause the greatest burden of disease, many of the major players in global health, the tremendous strides that have been made in disease research and ways for biotechnology innovators to create breakthrough products

Global Health Innovators: A Collection of Case Studies Highlights six separate R&D collaborations between biotech companies, product development partnerships, academic partners, and philanthropic donors and explores the varying approaches and perspectives of each partner involved

Closing the Global Health Innovation Gap Examines the core capabilities of the biotechnology industry, academia, and the nonprofit entities that focus on clinical development of new drugs for neglected diseases and reviews areas of significant alignment between biotechnology industry capabilities, basic disease understanding, and unmet medical needs

Lowell JE, Earl CD. Leveraging biotech's [...] discovery expertise for neglected diseases. Nat Biotechnol. 2009 Apr;27(4):323-9