OneWorld Health accord with Roche

The Institute for OneWorld Health, the US-based non-profit pharmaceutical company that develops drugs for people with neglected  infectious diseases in the developing world, has successfully completed  its first screening campaign of Swiss drug major Roche's proprietary  compound library and will select up to 40 new drug leads for further  study intended to identify a new treatment for childhood diarrhea.

OneWorld Health and Roche, and a global research presence, entered into  a research collaboration in the spring of 2008 to fight neglected  diarrheal diseases, which kill nearly two million children under the age  of five in the developing world each year.

"Our work with Roche is an example of the different kinds of  partnerships required to make the goal of reducing childhood deaths from  diarrheal diseases in the developing world a reality," said Richard  Chin, the Institute's chief executive. "The world has shown its resolve  to fight pediatric diarrheal diseases by committing to the United  Nations Millennium Development Goal of reducing the child mortality rate  by two-thirds by 2015," he added.