Innovation for the developing world
Rare and neglected diseases have traditionally received little attention from researchers. Fortunately, that is changing - and Novartis has developed dedicated research organizations, collaborations and financing mechanisms to help address this challenge.
Our research priorities are not determined by potential market size. The strategy of our R&D organization, the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), actively targets rare diseases where we have clear understanding of the disease's underlying cause and where there is real unmet medical need.
Novartis is committed to researching vaccines and medicines for diseases of the developing world through two specialist institutes within NIBR:
Helping manage malaria drug supplies using mobile phone technology
SMS for Life is a public-private partnership initiated by Novartis with the goal of eliminating stock-outs of antimalarials in Tanzania. Part of our broader commitment to fighting malaria, SMS for Life uses mobile phones, SMS messages and electronic mapping technology to help ensure health facilities do not run out of antimalarial medicines. The program won the 2011 Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Technology Innovation Award in the Health-Care IT category.
