The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) is pleased to announce the publication of its new policy report, Open science in a closed world – lessons and opportunities for securing openness and equitable access in R&D collaborations. 

Building on DNDi’s more than 20 years of experience developing treatments for neglected populations, the report explores how open and collaborative science, including a pro-access approach to managing intellectual property, can accelerate innovation, promote knowledge sharing, and ensure that life-saving health technologies are affordable and accessible to all who need them. 

The report provides one of the first comprehensive looks at how openness can be operationalized in real-world R&D collaborations. In particular, it examines: 

• The tensions and trade-offs between open science and more traditional, proprietary biomedical research models; 

• DNDi’s continuum of open science approaches, ranging from bilateral partnerships with industry to more open-source collaborations such as the Open Synthesis Network and the COVID-19 Moonshot; 

• Case studies exploring how open science approaches were navigated in specific DNDi projects and partnerships; 

• A practical framework for embedding openness and equitable access across the innovation lifecycle based on DNDi’s experience; and 

• Actionable recommendations for governments, R&D funders, academia and other research organizations, and industry to operationalize openness and equity in their innovation policies, practices, and partnerships. 

And it comes at a critical time: on the one hand, major funding cuts to medical research and growing geopolitical tensions are threatening fragile gains in global health. On the other hand, there are potentially transformative technological advances in biomedicine, renewed calls for stronger and more self-sufficient innovation ecosystems, especially in low- and middle-income countries, and an emerging consensus, including in the Pandemic Agreement, about how governments can leverage the power of public R&D funding to shape health innovation outcomes so that greater openness and equitable access are ensured. 

Open science in a closed world makes the case that research knowledge should be viewed not as a commodity to be enclosed, but as a shared resource essential to achieving more equitable health outcomes and argues that greater openness must move from aspiration to implementation—making open sharing of knowledge, data, and know-how as well as equitable access core objectives of R&D. 

DNDi invites policymakers, funders, researchers, and advocates to join the discussion and help translate the report’s recommendations into concrete action. 

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Photo credit: Thoko Chikondi-DNDi