Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative
Led by Executive Director Luis Pizarro,[5] DNDi has offices in Switzerland (Geneva), Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, and an affiliate in the United States.
[8] Evidence of the lack of new drugs for diseases that cause high mortality and morbidity among people living in poor areas has been published in the scientific literature.
[16] PDPs act as 'conductors of a virtual orchestra',[17] leveraging partners' specific assets, capacities, and expertise to implement projects at all stages of the R&D process, integrating capabilities from academia; public-sector research institutions, particularly in neglected disease-endemic countries; pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies; non-governmental organizations including other PDPs; and governments worldwide.
[21][22][23][24] A technology transfer agreement has been signed with industrial partner Zenufa in Tanzania in order to provide an additional source of ASAQ.
[26] By 2015 it was registered in Brazil, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Tanzania, Vietnam, Niger, Burkina Faso, Thailand and Cambodia.
[citation needed] SSG&PM,[29] a sodium stibogluconate plus paromomycin combination therapy, is a shorter-course, cost-efficient treatment option against visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in East Africa available since 2010.
It is the result of a six-year partnership between DNDi, the Leishmaniasis East Africa Platform (LEAP), the National Control Programmes of Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Uganda, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the WHO.
[35] This is the only paediatric dosage treatment for Chagas disease, launched in 2011 through a collaboration between DNDi and Laboratório Farmacêutico do Estado de Pernambuco (LAFEPE).
In November 2013, the Mundo Sano Foundation and DNDi signed a collaboration agreement to deliver a second source of the treatment in partnership with ELEA.
The paediatric dosage form of benznidazole is designed for infants and young children under two years of age (20 kg body weight) infected congenitally.
A DNDi-sponsored study[37] at five hospitals in South Africa demonstrated the effectiveness of 'super-boosting' or adding extra ritonavir to a child's treatment regimen.
[38] Fexinidazole is the first entirely oral treatment for sleeping sickness (or human African trypanosomiase) due to Trypanosoma brucei gambiense.
[44] Access to affordable hepatitis C treatment with highly efficacious direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) remains extremely limited in many low- and middle-income countries.
[45] In 2016, DNDi signed agreements with US biopharmaceutical company Presidio Pharmaceuticals, developer of the DAA drug candidate ravidasvir, and its licensing partner, the Egyptian generic manufacturer Pharco Pharmaceuticals, to enable testing of a new combination treatment optimised for public health use: ravidasvir + sofosbuvir.
[46] A Phase II/III study in Malaysia and Thailand, co-sponsored by the Malaysian and Thai Ministries of Health and co-financed by the MSF Transformational Investment Capacity (TIC) initiative, showed that 12 weeks after the end of treatment, 97% of participants were cured.
People co-infected with HIV and visceral leishmaniasis have poor response to treatment, higher risk of death, and often experience multiple relapse episodes.
[50] Previously, first-line treatment recommendations for visceral leishmaniasis in Brazil included the use of meglumine antimoniate, which has serious limitations due to toxicity, parenteral administration, and the need for hospitalization.
[55] The 4-in-1 is a significant improvement over currently available lopinavir-based regimens,[56] because it is formulated as a granule-filled capsule, which is heat-stable, taste-masked, solid, and does not contain alcohol or inappropriate solvents.
[61] Created in 2008 by the Carlos Slim Foundation, the aim of the award is to distinguish the people and institutions who are committed to improving the levels of health among the population of Latin America and the Caribbean.
[62] In 2013, The Rockefeller Foundation asked the global community to nominate organizations and individuals who were making a difference for poor and vulnerable populations through innovation.
The publication Oral fexinidazole for late-stage African Trypanosoma brucei gambiense trypanosomiasis: a pivotal multicentre, randomised, non-inferiority trial published November 4, 2017 in The Lancet[70] was one of the two winners of the 2018 edition of the Anne Maurer-Cecchini Award.
