The Washington Post profiles the nonprofit Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation, which has built up a pipeline of drugs intended to provide the first new tuberculosis vaccine since the 1920s. If they are successful, Aeras has a chance to rid the planet of a stubborn disease that kills more than two million people a year. Aeras is operating with funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. TB is largely restricted to poor countries, making it an orphan disease in the drug development world. What separates Aeras from other specialized nonprofit developers is the extent of its pipeline. Aeras has a number of therapies in development, hoping that one or two can survive the long and arduous development path to regulatory approval. It also has built a manufacturing plant that can make whatever is approved.
- here's The Washington Post report [1]
Links:
[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/22/AR2006032202193.html