VACCINES, JOB CREATION AND PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS MAKE THE CASE FOR GLOBAL HEALTH RESEARCH
Steven G. Reed, PhD, Infectious Disease Research Institute, Seattle
"Public private partnerships have been essential to creating and providing us with vaccines and diagnostics - a true cost-effective investment and intervention in our nation's health and economic well-being."
In 1993, Steven Reed, PhD, founded the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) in Seattle to improve the health of people around the world through innovative research and smart partnerships. As a global health researcher, he is in the unique position of leading his nonprofit organization in translating research and development into real products and delivery, like lifesaving vaccines. Reed says, "If we're not looking for ways to make new vaccines for these diseases, we can't deal with them. Global health and innovation are part of the answer."
Early in his career, he worked with a professor doing what he calls "exotic" field work in Central and South America. Over time, his work moved him from Walla Walla, WA to the University of Montana, where he took advantage of a top-notch research facility that bolstered his interest in microbiology. The global health and research fields that have benefitted from Reed's contributions have extended beyond improving health to entreprenuership. Reed is a leader in public-private partnerships. Since its start in the 90s, IDRI has spun out three biotech companies. In Seattle where IDRI is located, global health is highly visible, with several institutes devoted soley to global health and global health research, employing over 600 people directly and many more people indirectly. "Global health is a great way to spread goodwill around the world, and to create jobs in this country," says Reed.
He is currently researching product development for tuberculosis, leprosy, and the parasitic disease leishmaniasis, which is caused by the bite of a sand fly, causes skin sores, ulcers and can lead to potentially fatal complications from vital organ failure. IDRI scientists worked to develop the first defined TB vaccine which has now been licensed to GlaxoSmithKline. Reed continues to search for answers and develop what he refers to as "the missing link in vaccines"-a "booster" of sorts, added to vaccines to make them more effective and to improve the immune response, also known as adjuvants.
In answer to the question that many might ask during these troubled economic times, "why should the U.S. invest in global health research?" Reed responds, "The value has been visible for many years. Many of these organisms don't go away and they certainly don't have boundaries. When this country started, tuberculosis rapidly became the number one killer, continuing to kill well into the 20th century. The impact on the population was dramatic. Our understanding that drugs can control TB was something we realized only in the last 30 years." Vigilance is a must, warns Reed. "We now have TB that are resistant to drugs, threatening to turn the clock back. It reminds us that we must have the knowledge and tools necessary to protect our nation's health against diseases around the world."