Application of Open Source Licensing to Vaccine and Medicine Discovery and Development

This proposal will focus on the application of open source licensing to vaccine and drug discovery and development. Open source licensing, widely used within the computer software industry, allows an individual to share intellectual property rather than c opyrighting or patenting it. The main goal of this research project is to explore, develop and evaluate an Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) business model in regards to vaccine and drug development that has the potential to substantially reduce the cos ts of vaccines/drugs. This research project will focus on five diseases: HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, schistosomiasis and toxoplasmosis. These diseases were chosen because they include both Type II and Type III diseases which will allow for compariso ns in the data gathering objectives. Additionally, they are typically regarded as neglected diseases. This is a multidisciplinary project, which will principally focus on the area of health economics, but will also take into account research performed in the fields of law (pertaining to intellectual property), bioinformatics, public health, business administration, philosophy and ethics. This proposal is in line with GLOBVAC's thematic guidelines since this research is aimed at providing improved acces s to vaccines for marginalized populations in low- and middle income countries. Research findings should stimulate technology transfer to low- and middle-income countries. With an open source license, any vaccine producer can manufacture the vaccine. Ther efore, low-income countries could pool their resources and tender out the manufacture of a vaccine based upon price and quality. Developing nations' researchers can collaborate on vaccines to make the most of their research budgets. Open source could lead to cheaper, more accessible vaccines for the developing world.