Agora’s Open Science Business Model

Health is a human right, but the dominant pharmaceutical business model, which relies on private investors to finance preclinical and clinical development, results in medicines that are priced at levels unaffordable to most people on the planet. 

At Agora, we believe there is a better way.  We believe open science can accelerate the discovery and development of new medicines that address areas of significant unmet medical need and that can be priced at levels affordable to all.

Commitment to Openness and Affordability

We catalyze and engage in open science drug discovery initiatives that commit to:

  • sharing of results and data openly and without patent restrictions, and

  • affordability and fair access for patients and healthcare systems. 

These commitments motivate different sources of funding and in-kind contributions, including from governments, foundations, businesses, scientists, and clinicians. 

Project Coordination

To manage these contributions, Agora incorporates wholly-owned subsidiary companies that coordinate drug discovery projects in specific therapeutic areas.  These companies have a mandate to commercialize new medicines at affordable prices and in turn must distribute any proceeds to Agora for charitable use.  Neither project participants nor company management receive any rights to financial upside, which helps ensure that the agenda is not driven by profit-seeking and that would-be contributors are not dissuaded by a perception that others might unfairly benefit.

Intellectual Property Approach

Agora-backed drug discovery initiatives rely on regulatory data exclusivity and orphan market exclusivity as their primary intellectual property (IP) assets. Unlike patents, these forms of IP are compatible with our open science approach, but still provide sufficient commercial incentives for manufacturing and distribution of successful products. Our strategy is to develop late-stage, low-risk clinical assets using open science and to license the associated regulatory IP to commercial partners on terms that allow reasonable profits consistent with affordability and access.

Use of Proceeds

Any proceeds from Agora’s wholly-owned subsidiaries will be donated to Agora for use in charitable programs selected by Agora’s board of directors to best advance open science and the public good.