Partnership projects make progress, in the search for treatments for the most neglected infections

1 Jul 2009

Paul Chinnock

Source: Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) (see original article)

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An international meeting in Nairobi, Kenya heard that progress is being made in the search for new treatments for neglected infections. The 2nd international Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) stakeholder conference was attended by over 250 African and international health researchers, policymakers and three health ministers Health (Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda) from 28 countries. The aim of the meeting was to stimulate greater regional research partnership.

The challenge of bringing new treatments for diseases such as human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar) to all who need them remains formidable, but DNDi chose to highlight two examples of the progress that has been made: an improved treatment for sleeping sickness, nifurtimox-eflornithine combination therapy (NECT); and a research partnership, the Leishmania East Africa Platform (LEAP).

DNDi says these projects provide, “tangible proof of how global and South-South collaboration are strengthening Africa’s capacity to conduct clinical trials and to develop new treatments for diseases”. DNDi is also actively working on improved malaria treatments.

“Developing countries have the ability to provide new solutions for neglected diseases, but every day we face an uphill battle to find home-grown capacity for research and development into diseases that affect our poor,” said Monique Wasunna, Assistant Director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and the head of DNDi Africa. “By working together in regional, needs-driven research platforms, we have been able to do more in the past five years than had been done in the previous twenty years.”

DNDi’s Executive Director Dr Bernard Pecoul said: “We work closely with clinicians in rural hospitals to make sure that our medicines meet the real needs of patients and health workers in Africa. We help our partners by strengthening lab capacity and training on good clinical trial practice, but the real expertise of the diseases is already here on the ground, in the endemic countries. Without our partners in Africa, true innovation to find the most adapted treatments for the most neglected patients would not be possible”.

NECT

NECT is the first new treatment for 19 years against sleeping sickness, a fatal disease which threatens 60 million people across sub-Saharan Africa. It has been added to WHO’s Essential Medicines List (EML). It is now ready to be used after clinical studies involving the national control programmes of the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Epicentre, Médecins Sans Frontières, the Swiss Tropical Institute and WHO.

LEAP

LEAP is a clinical research network that brings together experts from leishmaniasis-endemic East African countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda. Since 2003 it has enrolled over 1,000 patients since in studies to develop combination therapies against the disease. LEAP strengthens clinical research capacity, in some of the most remote and rural regions of Africa. This includes building and renovation hospital wards, clinics, and health posts; re-equipping clinical laboratories; and training health service personnel.

New partnerships

Drug development partnerships recently announced by DNDi include an agreement with Merck & Co that will cover research into a wide range of NTDs including visceral leishmaniasis and Chagas disease, and a collaboration that will involve the establishment of a leishmaniasis drug discovery group at the University of Dundee, UK.