The Institute for OneWorld Health has discovered that addressing the world’s most menacing health threats sometimes means leaving money on the table. The organization, which is the nation’s first nonprofit pharmaceutical company, develops medications to tackle diseases in the developing world. Because drug development can take as many as 10 years from drawing board to regulatory approval, OneWorld Health has chosen to focus solely on its mission.
After the Asian tsunami, though, wealthy donors and well-known foundations offered OneWorld Health hefty sums to do emergency work in Asia. Michael MacHarg had to say no. “It’s tough,” notes MacHarg, who, as associate director of development and partnerships at OneWorld Health, is supposed to bring in resources – not turn them away. “I wouldn’t want to dissuade anyone from giving to a tsunami relief effort. But I also try to encourage them to think about the long picture.”
In competing with disasters like the tsunami for donor dollars, OneWorld Health would seem to be at a disadvantage. Yet sometimes MacHarg’s long-range pitch works, especially with donors who can be persuaded that their generosity involves a commitment that could be more significant and rewarding in the long run than simply dashing off a donation to emergency relief. Though higher risk than, say, International Rescue Committee missions, OneWorld Health’s medicines could have a greater impact on malaria, which claims 1 million lives each year; pediatric diarrhea, responsible for the deaths of 2 million children each year; and visceral leishmaniasis, a parasitic infection that is also known as black fever. “We’re in it for the long term. With us, you’re investing in an idea that’s very social entrepreneurial.”
OneWorld Health was the brainchild of Victoria Hale, a former drug industry scientist and Food and Drug Administration official troubled by how drug companies bypass the developing world’s health problems in favor of high-revenue, First World projects. During its first five years the nonprofit has benefited from donations of patents, talent, research facilities, and more than $50 million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“You can talk about malaria in crisis terms – 3,000 children dying a day – but it just doesn’t sink in for people. They don’t grasp that reality,” says MacHarg, echoing the refrain of nonprofit leaders and cognitive psychologists. “So you have to find ways to make people really think about the long-term commitment.”
MacHarg emphasizes OneWorld Health’s potential long-term impact, compared with the uncertain outcomes from short-term tsunami or earthquake relief. “There are donors out there who are asking the question, ‘Am I really part of a long-term solution?’” Better to focus on that than give into the latest philanthropic fashion, he suggests. “Once you chase money, you lose sight of your mission.”
Read more stories by Keith Epstein.