Geneva non-profit drugmakers unite as global health funding shrinks

Three Geneva-based organisations are joining forces as global health funding contracts. The Medicines for Malaria Venture, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative and the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership announced an alliance in June to share resources for research and development, advocacy and communications.

The partnership comes as the organisations prepare to introduce treatments for patients who often receive little attention from commercial drugmakers. The products include a malaria therapy for newborns, an antiviral treatment for chronic hepatitis C and an antibiotic aimed at gonorrhea and drug-resistant infections. Launches are expected in several low- and middle-income countries in the coming months.

The timing reflects a wider squeeze. Pharmaceutical R&D spending on neglected diseases dropped from $824 million in 2018 to $623 million in 2024, according to the G-Finder data portal run by Impact Global Health. Funding from major donors has also weakened, while commitments to international institutions such as the World Health Organization have come under pressure.

Geneva gives the alliance a practical base. The city hosts a dense global health network around the WHO, allowing the three groups to work with governments, researchers, manufacturers and international agencies. Their new arrangement aims to preserve that pipeline while fewer commercial partners remain willing to finance it.

The new medicines target gaps that conventional markets have repeatedly left open. Malaria remains a serious threat to children in countries where diagnosis and treatment can be difficult to secure. A therapy designed for newborns addresses a particularly vulnerable group, where treatment options and reliable supply can be limited.

DNDi has focused on diseases linked to poverty and weak access to clean water, sanitation and healthcare. Its work has covered illnesses including dengue, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis, as well as hepatitis C. The organisation’s hepatitis C treatment illustrates the potential effect of a non-profit development model: in Malaysia, it was initially sold for less than $300, while a patented treatment for the same disease cost $11,000.

GARDP was created in 2016 to respond to the collapse of antibiotic research. Drug-resistant infections can spread across borders and make routine procedures more dangerous, yet the commercial return from a new antibiotic is often uncertain. The partnership’s work on gonorrhea reflects that problem, since resistance can reduce the usefulness of existing medicines.

MMV, established in 1999, and DNDi, founded in 2003, built their programmes through collaborations with pharmaceutical companies, universities and public agencies. The alliance now gives those collaborations a larger collective platform.

Neglected-disease R&D lost $201 million between 2018 and 2024. The decline from $824 million to $623 million marks a funding problem for therapies whose patients are often concentrated in poorer countries. Those markets may need new medicines urgently, but they rarely promise the sales volumes or prices that commercial investors seek.

The three Geneva organisations have built their model around a different calculation. They identify a public health need, coordinate scientific and industrial partners, and seek a route to production and distribution that keeps medicines affordable. That approach can bring a treatment to patients without requiring a company to recover costs through high prices in low-income markets.

The model still depends on a functioning network of donors, manufacturers and public institutions. A fall in pharmaceutical participation can affect more than laboratory work. It may slow clinical trials, reduce manufacturing options and make it harder to register products in multiple countries. Weakening international health budgets can create similar bottlenecks after a medicine has been developed.

Peter Beyer, GARDP’s deputy executive director, said the organisations continue to produce treatments for urgent needs, but donors are showing less willingness to support work beyond their immediate national interests. The alliance is designed to share capacity as that environment tightens.

The alliance will combine more than scientific expertise. MMV, DNDi and GARDP plan to share work in R&D, advocacy and communications, areas that are often handled separately even when the same medicine must pass through all three before reaching patients.

Their organisations do not operate as conventional pharmaceutical companies. The source describes them as product development partnerships rather than laboratory-based manufacturers. They coordinate projects with outside researchers, pharmaceutical firms and public health bodies. That structure allows them to draw on specialist capabilities without maintaining a full commercial laboratory network of their own.

The arrangement also gives the groups a common voice when they seek funding or explain why a treatment deserves support. A malaria drug for newborns, a hepatitis C antiviral and an antibiotic for gonorrhea serve different patients and disease programmes, yet they face related obstacles: clinical evidence, affordable manufacturing, regulatory approval and reliable delivery.

A shared communications and advocacy effort could help the organisations make that case to governments and donors. It may also reduce duplicated work in Geneva’s crowded global health ecosystem. The alliance does not remove the funding gap, but it gives the three groups a way to coordinate their response and protect projects already moving toward launch.

The next test will come after approval, when treatments must reach patients. The three products expected to launch in the coming months will need national registration, manufacturing arrangements and distribution networks across low- and middle-income countries. Those steps determine whether an innovation becomes a usable medicine rather than remaining a successful development project.

For Switzerland, the alliance highlights Geneva’s role in global health and the limits of that ecosystem. The city brings together the WHO, non-governmental organisations, researchers and international donors, but coordination cannot replace sustained financing. Swiss institutions and companies can contribute expertise, manufacturing capacity and partnerships, while public donors influence whether development programmes survive beyond a single product.

The organisations’ record offers a practical argument for continued support. Over two decades, MMV, DNDi and GARDP have delivered dozens of solutions to millions of low-income patients, according to the source. Their pipeline now reaches from newborn malaria to hepatitis C and antibiotic resistance, conditions that affect different regions but share a dependence on affordable access.

The June alliance signals a change in operating style as donor commitments weaken. Its success will be measured by whether the coming launches reach clinics, whether prices remain workable and whether the Geneva model can keep producing medicines for patients commercial incentives overlook.