The Center for World Health & Medicine was a not-for-profit drug discovery research center which was established in 2010 by Saint Louis University. The staff consisted entirely of former pharmaceutical industry scientists with diverse skills and experience in advancing new therapies for testing in human clinical trials. Working with investigators at the university and with collaborators from around the world, the Center’s primary mission was to discover and enable clinical development of affordable new medicines for unmet medical needs with an emphasis on orphan diseases, neglected diseases, and diseases of poverty. Collectively, these diseases have enormous socioeconomic consequences, as they disproportionately affect the most vulnerable populations including the poor, infants and children.
Story
As result of the 2009 Pfizer acquisition of Wyeth and subsequent sale of the Pfizer research facility in Saint Louis, a large number of highly skilled research scientists became available to the workforce. In December 2009, Saint Louis University began looking into ways to retain many of these scientists in the region along with bolstering the university's medical research. In February 2010, Saint Louis University announced its plans to invest 5 million dollars in a new research center that would focus on neglected, rare and orphan disease, consistent with the Jesuit mission of the University. In July 2010, CWHM opened its labs in the new Doisy Research Center on the Saint Louis University's Medical Campus. In 2017, the CWHM was closed due to last of self-sufficient funding.
Past Projects
Childhood Diarrhea- is the second leading cause of death in children under 5 years of age, killing 1.5 million children annually. In 2007, Diarrheal Disease was the third leading cause of death in developing countries among infectious diseases. Malaria- is a vector borne blood pathogen called Plasmodium. Each year this disease kills 1-3 million people in developing countries. In African a child dies from Malaria every 45 seconds. Sickle-Cell Disease- is a genetic disorder that causes hemoglobin to mis-fold and distortion of red blood cells. This results in a number of acute and chronic complications, including severe pain to shortened lifespan. Retinitis pigmentosa –is a group of inherited diseases characterized by progressive loss of photoreceptor cells in the eye leading to blindness. New therapies may be useful not only for RP, but also other ophthalmic disorders such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy, which are leading causes of blindness worldwide.
