Big Pharma Joins the Sharing Revolution

In a surprising move, pharmaceutical companies are joining the open innovation movement by releasing data about potential malaria drugs to the public. Unveiled as part of the World Health Organization’s plans to control debilitating tropical diseases, 11 companies will be releasing libraries of chemical compounds that have been shown to inhibit malaria in one way or another.

Unfortunately, such a huge database of relatively unfiltered data has its drawbacks. According to Sean Ekins, a specialist in software  used by drug companies to test a compounds viability as a useable drug, nearly 76% of the drugs released would not pass the filters of a leading drug company and therefore investigating them is likely a waste of time.

However, we have seen time and time again that when projects are released into the public domain, they take on a life of their own. It wouldn’t be too surprising to learn that when volunteers roll up their sleeves and are willing to work at a less than desirable “success-to-cost ratio” that amazing things will begin to happen that would be unachievable by a traditional pharmaceutical company.

The sharing revolution hasn’t let me down yet, and this has the potential to dramatically improve the world.

Creative Commons Love: rutty on Flickr.com

Written by Michael Jones