Q&A
Nature Medicine 13, 1274 (2007)
doi:10.1038/nm1107-1274
Straight talk from... Victoria Hale
Erika Check Hayden1
- San Francisco
Abstract
In 2000, former Genentech executive Victoria Hale and her husband launched the Institute for OneWorld Health from the first floor of their San Francisco home. They called the institute "the world's first nonprofit pharmaceutical company" and intended it to address diseases of poverty, which are generally neglected by drug companies. For its first project, the group tried to revive paromomycin, a 60-year-old antibiotic, to treat a disease called visceral leishmaniasis. In September 2006, India approved the drug. OneWorld Health has in the meantime grown to 50 employees and a $90 million budget. On 27 September, Hale stepped down from her role as chief executive officer of the institute. Here she tells Erika Check Hayden what's next for her and for the unique organization she launched.
