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In the U.S. we're used to the very best, the very latest in treatments. But in many other parts of the world, even the most basic diseases are often left untreated.
Victoria Hale, PhD/ One World Health Inst.: "Two million children die every year from diarrhea, as a primary cause of death. When you include or expand diarrhea as part of the cause of death then it jumps to six million, six million children a year."
So Dr. Victoria Hale created the Institute for One World Health to try and find treatments for diseases that affected mostly developing nations.
The idea is incredibly simple. Go to other pharmaceutical companies, get them to give her drugs that they've developed but have not used because they are not profitable enough, then finish testing and bring them to market and treat diseases that affect millions of poor people worldwide.
Victoria Hale, PhD: "To have a market that is mostly outside of the U.S. is not particuarly attractive to most pharmaceutical companies, but that's our mission."
One World Health is now working with the Indian government to treat Leishmaniasis-- a parasitic disease that if untreated can be fatal.
And it's also developing therapies for chagas disease, that affects up to 18 million people in South and Central America, and is the leading cause of heart failure there.
Hale says by taking the profit motive out of the picture, she hopes to be able to bring life-saving drugs to those most in need.
Victoria Hale, PhD: "It has just been my personal dream to have work be a seamless part of life, where it's just exactly what I want to do and feel strongly about. I work a lot but I don't want to do anything else."
One world health is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundtion and the National Institutes of Health.
