welcome to Concept Foundation

Concept Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, based in Bangkok but working worldwide. It is one of the oldest Product Development Partnerships (PDPs), having been established under a collaborative agreement with WHO in 1989. It has extensive experience in the development of partnerships with pharmaceutical manufacturers in developing countries and in ensuring access of products of assured quality to lower and middle income countries. Concept focusses on products for sexual and reproductive health as a means of contributing to the intergovernmental Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5: “To improve maternal health”, in particular its Targets: “Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio”; and “Achieve universal access to reproductive health”. It aims to ensure that women, in particular, in developing countries have equitable access to essential, affordable healthcare products of assured quality.

The target of another MDG, (number 8): “Develop a global partnership for development” is to work “In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries.” This is the basis of Concept Foundation’s business model, whereby it licenses intellectual property to pharmaceutical companies for the manufacturing and marketing of the selected products. These companies are selected through a rigorous assessment of their technological capabilities, their capability to meet current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) and their willingness to provide product at a preferential public sector price in countries throughout the world.

For almost twenty years, Concept Foundation has developed and practiced innovative and original approaches to the management for intellectual property of health products in order to close the medicines access gap that the poor regularly experience in developing countries. Through judicious management of intellectual property, transfer of technology, assuring quality and promoting affordable products in developing country markets, Concept Foundation has a wealth of knowledge and expertise in areas that are only now being explored by some of the newer PDPs focussing on medicines and diagnostics for neglected diseases.