May 8, 2007

Victoria Hale


This one's pretty cool too. Victoria Hale founded the first nonprofit drug company in the United States, called the Institute for OneWorld Health. She was inspired by the suffering she saw wile spending time in India roughly 5 years ago. Her dedication and hard work have made bringing medicine where it is needed most possible, they are still working towards thier man goal.

“Drug companies measure their success in terms of profits,” Hale explains. “Our idea was to start a pharmaceutical company that measured success in terms of lives saved and suffering eased.”

To do that, her fledgling nonprofit company raises money from individuals, corporations, and foundations (the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated more than $80 million), and relies on the volunteer help of hundreds of pharmaceutical scientists and people in many other fields.

The Institute for OneWorld Health is about to submit documents for approval for its first drug, an antibiotic that can cure visceral leishmaniasis more effectively and for a fraction of the cost of existing drugs. Now Hale and her team are turning their attention to drugs and vaccines to fight other diseases, including malaria and childhood diarrheal diseases."

(Quote from article on Health.com)

Check out the One World Health webpage!

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