GENEVA, SWITZERLAND--Victoria Hale, Ph.D., CEO and Founder of the Institute for OneWorld Health, San Francisco, Calif., U.S.A., has been selected as one of 10 of the world's most "Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs" by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. Spanning various fields including health, rural development, microfinance, environment, and media and communication, social entrepreneurs identify practical solutions to social problems by combining innovation, resourcefulness and opportunity. The Foundation uses its leverage with global leaders so that scalable solutions of social entrepreneurs can be replicated, improved and expanded to solve similar problems elsewhere. This is the third consecutive year that the Schwab Foundation has selected the world's foremost social entrepreneurs.

Hale created the Institute for OneWorld Health in 2000 as the first nonprofit pharmaceutical company in the United States. OneWorld Health's experienced team of pharmaceutical scientists uncovers promising drug candidates and advances them through clinical trials and regulatory approval to treat the poorest people in the developing world. This entrepreneurial model was designed to create a win-win situation, both for those without access to safe and affordable medicines, and for the global pharmaceutical industry. With the specific goal of separating profitability from a drug's potential to cure disease, OneWorld Health leverages promising industry research to create life-saving medicines for people most in need.

Hale's career spans 15 years, including regulatory and industry experience at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Genentech, Inc. She is an advisor to the World Health Organization for building ethical review capacity in the developing world, and has served as Expert Reviewer to the National Institutes of Health on the topic of biodiversity. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California at San Francisco, where she maintains a faculty position. More on Hale and OneWorld Health may be found at http://www.schwabfound.org/schwabentrepreneurs.htm?schwabid=915

"I am deeply honored to be selected by the Schwab Foundation," Hale said. "This recognition shows that business entrepreneurship can combine successfully with a social mission to make a significant difference in the health of people in the developing world. With the assistance of the Schwab Foundation, I look forward to creating more alliances with those who share our vision and who will help us advance global health care."

Opportunities provided to Schwab entrepreneurs selected to this exclusive network include, among others, participation at renowned events such as the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the Annual Social Entrepreneurs Summit. These venues put them in contact with leading business entrepreneurs, heads of corporations and governments, academic and other thought leaders, as well as with other outstanding social entrepreneurs.

The Schwab Foundation applies a number of criteria in selecting Social Entrepreneurs:

1.Innovation: The candidate has brought about demonstrable, high-impact social change by transforming traditional practice in a given field.
2.Reach and Scope: The social enterprise has spread beyond its initial context and has been adapted successfully to other settings.
3.Replicability: Aspects of the initiative can be transferred to other regions and are scalable, and can be shared with others.
4.Sustainability: Has generated the social conditions and/or institutions needed to sustain the initiative.
5.Direct positive impact: Has founded, developed and implemented the entrepreneurial initiative directly, together with poor or excluded beneficiaries and stakeholders.
6.Role model: Can serve as a role model for future social entrepreneurs and the general public.
7.Mutual value-added: While the Foundation can provide further legitimacy, networking and resource mobilization opportunities, the candidate demonstrates an interest in building a mutually supportive network of outstanding social entrepreneurs.

The Institute for OneWorld Health, the first nonprofit pharmaceutical company in the U.S., advances global health by developing new medicines for infectious diseases that disproportionately affect people in the developing world. OneWorld Health accomplishes this through an entrepreneurial business model in which its scientists identify promising drug leads and drive their development from pre-clinical trials to clinical trials through regulatory approval. The Institute for OneWorld Health, headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., is a tax-exempt 501(c )(3) U.S. corporation (www.oneworldhealth.org).

Institute for OneWorld Health

Institute for OneWorld Health

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