Corporate Buzz: A New Generation of Business Models for Health

By: Victoria Hale, PhD, CEO at Medicines360

Most people have one life changing, “ah-ha” moment in their lives, but in my case, I had two. The first moment came when I was sitting in the back of a New York City taxi, and the driver asked me what I did for a living. When I told him that I was a pharmaceutical scientist, he said, “Oh, you have all the money!” And, in that moment, my first company, OneWorld Health, was born.

OneWorld Health is a first-generation non-profit pharmaceutical company created as an innovative, gutsy initiative to develop drugs to treat people with neglected tropical diseases. This charity model is entirely dependent on others—that is, on large grants from philanthropists and on the for-profit pharmaceutical industry for the delivery of medicines to the poor.

Wanting to move away from this charity model and toward sustainability, I began thinking of other entrepreneurial solutions. If we are going to bring important medical products forward to remedy global health disparity, we need new business models. Shortly thereafter, I had my second life-changing, “ah-ha” moment, and Medicines360, my second company, was born.

Medicines360 is a second-generation non-profit pharmaceutical company. Although it has a philanthropic beginning, it creates products that can be sold everywhere in the world, including profitable markets, such as the United States and European Union. Medicines360 will retain control of public sector sales while commercial, private sector sales will be licensed to a pharmaceutical company partner. Through this hybrid-partnership model, a substantial portion of the commercial sales profits will return to Medicines360 to help us achieve financial sustainability and our public sector mission—to develop effective, affordable, and sustainable medical solutions for all women.

Medicines360’s model could be likened to the TOMS Shoes’ one-for-one model – buy one pair in the US and one pair is given to a person who cannot afford to buy them. Similarly, vaccine companies provide very low cost vaccines to UNICEF.  Medicines360 is a model “where a women’s investment in her own health solutions subsidizes products for women unable to buy their own.”

In the days of the 99% movement, we must reduce disparity and demonstrate that such action does not adversely impact a commercial market—that we can do business and do good.

Check out Victoria’s message: A New Decade, A New Approach to Women’s Health
Learn more about women’s health access around the globe.