Jaykumar Menon is leading a transformative approach to addressing the world’s most pressing health challenges through his two nonprofits, the Open Source Pharma Foundation and the Double-Fortified Salt Project. By applying open-source principles, such as openness, crowd-sourcing, and real-time collaboration, Menon believes that the pharmaceutical industry can accelerate drug discovery and development while reducing costs, ultimately benefiting billions of people in need.
Open Source Pharma focuses on two main strategies: advocating for an alternative approach to drug development and actively developing medicines and vaccines using open-source principles. The organization leverages existing generic medicines and vaccines, aggregating global knowledge to repurpose them for new diseases at a fraction of the cost of traditional drug development. Additionally, they are exploring novel discovery methods, combining early-stage computational discovery, crowdsourcing, and a network of collaborating labs.
Menon’s background as a human rights lawyer has driven his mission to help millions to billions of people worldwide. He identified the pharmaceutical industry as the best opportunity to achieve the highest return on investment in terms of global impact. By “designing backward from scale” and leveraging existing infrastructure, such as the generic drug industry and iodized salt distribution, Menon’s initiatives can reach vast numbers of people quickly and cost-effectively.
“Designing backward from scale” is a strategy that starts with the end goal — reaching a large number of people — then works backward to create a solution that can be quickly and efficiently scaled up using existing networks or infrastructure. By tailoring the solution to work with systems already in place, this approach allows for rapid implementation and maximum impact on the target population.
The Double-Fortified Salt Project, Menon’s second nonprofit, tackles iron deficiency, the world’s most widespread form of malnutrition. By adding trace amounts of iron to iodized salt at a minimal cost, the project has already reached over 20 million people and has demonstrated significant reductions in iron deficiency within a year.
Menon’s advice to those seeking to create social good is to be creative, strategic, and go full force, as changing systems and achieving seemingly impossible goals, such as curbing the world’s most widespread form of malnutrition, is possible with the right approach.
Read the complete interview at McKinsey Alumni: Are open source principles the key to saving lives?
Watch this video to learn more about Jaykumar Menon’s work: