Current Issues in Healthcare: Johnson & Johnson forms R&D group to target global health issues

Tackling the health challenges facing the citizens of lower-income countries will take coordinated efforts from governments, health care practitioners, thought leaders, NGOs, and pharmaceutical companies.  Now, one of those pieces is hopefully falling into place: Johnson & Johnson’s pharma arm, Janssen, recently announced the creation of Janssen Global Public Health, a group devoted to “research, develop, and deliver transformational medicines to address the world’s greatest unmet public health needs”, according to the press release available here.

Initial efforts appear to be focused on HIV, tuberculosis, and parasites.  Additionally, one of the major goals of the group looks to be to partner with other organizations, which hopefully means they will be working with dedicated people and groups with on-the-ground experience in different regions around the globe instead of just trying to forge ahead blindly.  If they do seek expertise of those with experience, then hopefully Janssen Global Public Health can turn around some rapid results for people who really can’t afford to wait any longer.

Hat tip to Fierce Biotech for initial coverage of the PR.

Steve Mason, Ph.D., is the Senior Editor of Biological Sciences of Cancer InCytes Magazine.  The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect any company or organization.

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