Dr. Hale, 44, started the organization in 1998 in order to combat diseases neglected in the business plans of the big pharmas. In essence, OneWorld Health accepts intellectual property donations from academia and the private sector in the form of potential medicines for diseases in the developing world. It then takes the medicines through the R&D path to regulatory approval, taking into account existing distribution networks when deciding which diseases to tackle.

OneWorld Health currently has projects aimed at diarrhoeal disease, which Dr. Hale says kills more children that malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV combined; chagas disease, which is transmitted by parasites found only in Latin America; and malaria, which remains a killer in many poor countries. Its lead compound, a treatment for leishmaniasis, a potentially fatal parasitic disease transmitted by sand flies, has gone through final-stage FDA trials, and is currently awaiting approval.

Unlike many who work in nonprofits, Dr. Hale is enthusiastic about the for-profit sector and is keen to develop partnerships with biotechs and pharmas. She has seen many aspects of the drug discovery world; she spent five years as a research scientist for Genentech and another five years as a senior reviewer at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Dr. Hale co-founded and served as chief scientific officer of Axiom BioMedical, a pharmaceutical development and liability consultancy.

Dr. Hale was named one of 2004’s “Most Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs” by Switzerland’s Schwab Foundation. She is also an advisor to the World Health Organization, an adjunct professor of Biopharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, and was selected as a Leadership Foundation Fellow of the International Women’s Forum in September 2003. She admits that it’s in her nature “to do everything.”