GlaxoSmithKline to provide funding for Wellcome Trust disease research

GlaxoSmithKline has announced a fresh funding injection to support the Wellcome Trust's open approach to discovering and developing new therapies for diseases that are prevalent in poorer countries.

Up to five million pounds will be made accessible to the charitable foundation to help it move forward early-stage research projects to find new treatments for diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, Leishmaniasis and sleeping sickness.

International scientists will collaborate with GlaxoSmithKline staff at its Tres Cantos facility in Madrid, with the intention of creating two high-quality experimental drugs over the next five years.

Currently, there are 12 active projects in the development at the Tres Cantos open lab, which was launched in 2010.

Dr Nick Cammack, head of GlaxoSmithKline's Tres Cantos Medicines Development Campus, said: "This support highlights a growing recognition that collaborative and open research is the key to tackling these devastating diseases."

Earlier this week, the company announced the launch of a new online data-sharing system that will form the foundation of its plans to make its clinical trial data more easily accessible.