BioAgenda Releases First Think-Tank Study: GAPCures

On March 10, 2006, The BioAgenda team released a study and proposal titled: GAPCURES: A VISION OF WHOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD, prepared by the BioAgenda Institute and the Ad Hoc Committee for the GAPCures Initiative. Based on a field trip to Cambodia, this study outlines an initiative for the biotech industry to fund and support sustainable, small-scale health care interventions in the developing world. Click here to read the report.

In late February, a team from BioAgenda and the GAPCures initiative visited Siem Reap, Cambodia, site of the Angkor Children’s Hospital, remarkable project that is providing health care for children living in this desperately poor region of the world. GAPCures commissioned the BioAgenda Institute to develop and write a think-tank study on how the project at Siem Reap could be expanded to provide a network in surrounding villages to deliver basic health care, paid for by companies in the biotech and pharma industries that see this sort of assistance as good business. This is from the introduction to the report:

A BIOAGENDA WHITE PAPER REPORT

GAPCURES: A VISION OF WHOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD

Introduction

The Vision: "Wholistic Development"

The GAPCures initiative is exploring new approaches to achieve comprehensive community health in the developing world. The initiative is designed to augment existing programs sponsored by NGOs, world health organizations and local governments that have developed an infrastructure for the delivery of health care services. GAPCures will build on these systems by providing additional improvements such as irrigation, mosquito nets, purchasing school uniforms so that children can attend classes, and transportation to and from clinics.
 
The initiative is industry-led and based on three crucial tenets – integration, sustainability, and long-term community health and stabilization.
 
We plan to develop a working model based on successful programs that can be franchised out to a variety of developing world locales, adapted to local needs and conditions.
 
This report will present findings from a recent GAPCures-BioAgenda field investigation of the Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, Cambodia, a program that will serve as a case study for how a project can attain the goals of integration, sustainability, and long-term community health and stabilization.
 
Healthcare Industry Led

Integral to the GAPCures philosophy is an effort led and paid for by socially responsible companies and individuals within the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, working in collaboration with NGOs and local governments. This support is not intended as traditional charitable grants, but seeks to create financial sustainability from corporate participants. The model works by asking companies to provide a tiny percentage of their profits from targeted products to fund projects that aim to elevate communities and create future markets for products.
 
GAPCures plans to develop a funding model similar to recent efforts that incorporate global health funding into their business plans through mechanisms that earmark a percentage of sales or devote recurring revenues from specific products to designated programs. Two examples:
 
Viva Glam: Since 1994 MAC cosmetics has devoted 100% of the sales for five of its lipstick shades (one new one is introduced every 2-3 years) to AIDS organizations under their “Viva Glam” program. “Viva Glam” is heavily marketed with a celebrity attached to each shade (Elton John, Pamela Anderson, etc.); the effort to date has raised over $60 million. (http://www.macaidsfund.org/support/organizations.html)
 
Product Red: Popularized by U2 singer Bono, this recently announced program is enlisting corporations to develop products that will carry the distinctive "product red" logo. Companies will devote a percentage of profits from these products – so far American Express, GAP, Armani Exchange, and Converse – to AIDS programs. (http://www.joinred.com/facts.asp)
 
The benefits of corporate philanthropy to a company’s business has been widely written about in books such as Doing Well by Doing Good, by Marc Benioff, the CEO of salesforce.com. His book contains essays on the subject by corporate leaders such as Steve Case and Jean-Pierre Garnier of GlaxoSmithKline. This book and other books, studies and articles have documented that shareholders, investors and society at large recognize and reward corporations that incorporate programs to provide for the needs of the global population. GAPCures is led by and plans to focus on the healthcare industry, but will also seek to integrate the participation and interests of corporate partners from other industries.

The study was made possible by the generous support from Napo Pharmaceuticals' Healing Forest Conservancy and Sterling Stamos Capital Management.

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