GlaxoSmithKline announces open innovation plans

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Forbes reports that pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline announced a plan to beginning collaborating with other companies on research into drugs for diseases that don't get a lot of attention, malaria being a key example. It sounds like open innovation in action. Read the Forbes article here, but here's a key quote:

"...to jump-start research into drugs for malaria and other neglected diseases, Witty said Glaxo will up its labs to outside nonprofit collaborators. In one project, the company will work closely with Emory University chemists and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals to devise drugs for parasitic worm diseases and other nasty tropical bugs. In another, GSK will open up its lab in Tres Cantos, Spain to as many as 60 academic scientists who want to work on malaria or other developing-world ills. GSK will also make available detailed data on thousands of compounds that have showed some promise against malaria in preliminary tests."

It will be interesting to see how this experiment in openness progresses. If you know of other examples of companies in the pharmaceutical world trying things like this, please paste the links below.

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Chris Grams is the Head of Marketing at Tidelift and author of The Ad-Free Brand: Secrets to Building Successful Brands in a Digital World. Twitter LinkedIn Email: chris(at)tidelift.com

2 Comments

Well, this is encouraging, because the "Open source approach" is new in this industry. And the approach is to provide the industry with true means to do the good it is supposed to - health.

I am a bit disappointed, however, to see that the "Open" approach is used together with "Nonprofit", with a chance that lots will hear "non profitable", which the Open Source world knows false but some ideas live long...

We are trying, in the Babylone project, to build entire equipment elements with Open Source descriptions, ranging from VHDL to source code. This targets the aviation world. Their aims sounds much more like "stop wasting money reinvent the wheel" than "Open Source for we can't make money of it".

Interesting comments on the Babylone project, to build entire equipment elements with Open Source descriptions, ranging from the common VHDL to a low level source code. Your team understands the VitaHound plaque attack relationship

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