Global health R&D at work in Virginia
The Medicines for All Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University’s College of Engineering is working to make medicines cheaper and thus more accessible globally by driving down production costs. The team does this by reinventing the processes by which drugs are made. They consider less expensive starting materials or improved processes that ultimately translate into major cost savings. They then share this know-how with mass drug manufacturers. For the HIV drug nevirapine, for example, the program was able to reduce production costs from $200 a kilo down to $60. By making widely used drugs for high-burden global diseases cheaper, the program not only saves more lives but also increases the cost-effectiveness of US global health programs.