How to Fight Rare Diseases with Radically Open Innovation

The Economist website reported that when told he would die and be given the last rites, a medical student decided to hunt for a cure from his hospital bed. He found one and survived. Now a doctor in his own right, David Fajgenbaum is pioneering a new approach to fighting rare diseases through an open model of medical innovation. Where the current system of drug discovery relies on a big market to fuel commercial incentives, or random chance that researchers will come together to make a discovery, Mr Fajgenbaum’s “collaborative network approach” overcomes these problems. The idea is to scour the world for drugs that have been approved for one use but could have others. Then, it brings together researchers to study how to adapt them, and funds the trials needed to bring them to market.

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