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Institute for OneWorld Health Announces Strategic Advisory Board for Diarrheal Disease Program

Posted on: Tuesday, 29 April 2008, 06:00 CDT

The Institute for OneWorld Health, the US-based non-profit pharmaceutical company that develops drugs for people with infectious diseases in the developing world, today announced its Strategic Advisory Board to support the OneWorld Health Diarrheal Disease Program (DDP).

OneWorld Health recently completed a robust five year strategic plan to inform the future direction and expansion of the diarrheal disease portfolio and programs. Each year more than two million children in developing countries die from these diseases, caused by a wide range of bacterial, parasitic, and viral pathogens. OneWorld Health is assembling a portfolio of product candidates that will address various aspects of diarrheal diseases, with a special focus on the needs of infants and young children.

Dr. David A. Sack, MD, has been appointed the Chair of OneWorld Health's DDP Strategic Advisory Board. Recognized world-wide for his research on diseases of poverty around the globe with a focus on diarrheal diseases, Dr. Sack is a professor in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, and has been on the faculty at Johns Hopkins University since 1976. From October 1999 until June 2007, Dr Sack served as the Executive Director of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. After June 2007, he returned to Baltimore to resume his faculty position.

"I am delighted to support OneWorld Health's efforts to provide affordable treatments for diarrheal diseases," said Dr. Sack, "It is a privilege to work with the dedicated and accomplished researchers and global public health advocates on the OneWorld Health Strategic Advisory Board of the Diarrheal Disease Program to advance the goal of developing safe, effective and affordable drugs for the treatment of diarrheal diseases in developing countries."

OneWorld Health's strategic and scientific advisors are academic and industry leaders in science, technology and medicine, and cover the broad range of expertise required to oversee drug development for people with neglected diseases in the developing world. The members of OneWorld Health's Diarrheal Disease Program Strategic Advisory Board serve as advisors for OneWorld Health's initiative focused on the development of new drugs and therapeutic interventions to combat diarrheal diseases, a leading cause of death in children under five worldwide. The individuals are as follows:

Dr. David A. Sack, Chair, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States

Dr. Shinjini Bhatnagar, Senior Grade Scientist, Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

Prof. Zulfiqar Bhutta, Professor of Pediatrics & Neonatology, Aga Khan University, Pakistan

Prof. Mark Donowitz, Professor of Medicine & Physiology, Johns Hopkins University, United States

Dr. Olivier Fontaine, WHO Director of Diarrheal Diseases, Geneva, Switzerland

Dr. G. Balakrish Nair, Director, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Calcutta, India

Prof. Ann-Mari Svennerholm, Division of Medicine & Microbiology, University of Goteborg, Sweden

Further information on diarrheal diseases and their impact on children's lives can be found at www.oneworldhealth.org.

About the Institute for OneWorld Health

The Institute for OneWorld Health, the first US nonprofit pharmaceutical company, develops safe, effective and affordable medicines for people with neglected diseases of the developing world. The Institute for OneWorld Health, headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA, is a tax-exempt 501 (c) (3) US corporation. (http://www.oneworldhealth.org/). Media resources are available at http://www.oneworldhealth.org/media/index.php/.

Source: Business Wire

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