Developing a drug treatment is a costly and lengthy exercise, with pharmaceutical companies often criticised for being driven more by profit than need.

In 2005, an independent, not-for-profit pharma company was set up in Australia with the aim of delivering affordable medicines for vulnerable people.

It's led to a new treatment for river blindness in sub-Sahara Africa and important research on heart disease in Australian Indigenous communities.

Guest: Mark Sullivan, founder and managing director of Medicines Development for Global Health