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The Open Source Pharma Foundation is a unique global nonprofit. We discover low-cost cures for the poor and the sick, specializing in maladies afflicting billions.
We seek to discover drugs, and a new way to discover drugs. We aim to build a global open-source pharma ecosystem to develop affordable, evidence-based pharma and biotech interventions in areas of unmet health need, with a special emphasis on the global South. In brief, open source pharma is: 1) crowdsourced and computer-driven drug discovery; 2) IT-enabled clinical trials with open data and crowdsourcing; and 3) generics manufacture Through nurturing the open source pharma global movement, building platforms for international scientific collaboration, convening global conferences, and conducting open source-enabled pharmaceutical research, we are working towards an alternative, end-to-end pharmaceutical system. |
OSPF is a supporter of the Open Source Pharma Movement and Community
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Our VisionMedicines for all
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Our ApproachBegin at the end.
Find new uses for approved drugs. Take off-patent medicines and vaccines from one disease and “repurpose” them for another. |
HOW CAN PHARMA BE OPEN SOURCE?
Overview
History of OSPF
The idea of applying open source principles derived from the software industry to the pharmaceutical industry, and to the process of drug discovery, has a long history. The pioneers must be acknowledged. Early papers include Can Open-Source R&D Reinvigorate Drug Research? (2006) in Nature by Bernard Munos. Pioneering institutionalizations include the government of India’s Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD), created by Chief Mentor Professor Samir K. Brahmachari, which has assembled over 50 Indian universities, carried out over 100 research projects, created a large community of students, and identified more than 60 potential drug targets of tuberculosis. They also include Open Source Malaria (OSM), founded by Professor Matthew Todd. In 2013, the Tata Trusts funded the TATA CSIR-OSDD Fellowship (TCOF), providing open source drug discovery fellowships to students and young researchers conducting research for neglected diseases through methods of crowdsourcing.
Early meetings and conferences include a WHO meeting in London. At global conferences in 2014 at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Italy (OSP1) and in 2015 in Rauischholzhausen, Germany (OSP2), the concept was further vetted. In 2015, the Tata Trusts decided to expand its activities in the area. In 2018, with funds received from the Tata Trusts, which support philanthropic work in India, the OSPF commenced operations. A third global conference was held in Paris in 2019 (OSP3). OSPF established a center in Paris later in 2019. A meeting on open source approaches to pharma R&D was held by the Harvard Global Health Institute in December 2019, and by the Harvard Global Health Institute and OSPF in March 2020. OSPF-USA was established in 2020, located in New York City. OSPF seeks to expand and nurture the global open source pharma community and movement, to build an open source innovation model for the pharma sector, and to actually try to deliver affordable new therapies in areas of great health need, particularly for infectious diseases affecting the marginalized communities around the world.
Early meetings and conferences include a WHO meeting in London. At global conferences in 2014 at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Italy (OSP1) and in 2015 in Rauischholzhausen, Germany (OSP2), the concept was further vetted. In 2015, the Tata Trusts decided to expand its activities in the area. In 2018, with funds received from the Tata Trusts, which support philanthropic work in India, the OSPF commenced operations. A third global conference was held in Paris in 2019 (OSP3). OSPF established a center in Paris later in 2019. A meeting on open source approaches to pharma R&D was held by the Harvard Global Health Institute in December 2019, and by the Harvard Global Health Institute and OSPF in March 2020. OSPF-USA was established in 2020, located in New York City. OSPF seeks to expand and nurture the global open source pharma community and movement, to build an open source innovation model for the pharma sector, and to actually try to deliver affordable new therapies in areas of great health need, particularly for infectious diseases affecting the marginalized communities around the world.
