Since 2003, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) has worked to meet the public health needs of neglected populations by filling gaps in drug development left by the for-profit pharmaceutical industry. A new research study by the French Development Agency analysed DNDi’s unique product development partnership (PDP) model, and found that it “illustrate[s] what can be presented as a ‘commons’ within the area of public health.” Continue reading ->
Unitaid has launched two separate calls for proposals for the development of improved technologies to better diagnose and treat Plasmodium vivax malaria, and to more effectively treat HIV and its coinfections, including tuberculosis and malaria, in low and middle-income countries. Continue reading ->
There is a need to strengthen multisectoral collaboration to halt the global tuberculosis epidemic, WHO Executive Board (EB) members said in a review of the WHO End TB Strategy, which aims to reduce TB deaths by 90 percent by 2030. Continue reading ->
The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) today announced the launch of the "Pandemic Response Box", which offers researchers free access to 400 compounds that could lead to development of new treatments for pandemic diseases. In return, researchers "will be expected to share data resulting from research on the molecules from the box in the public domain within 2 years of its generation." Continue reading ->
Funding for neglected disease research and development reached its highest level in a decade, with US $3.56 billion in investments in 2017. Continue reading ->
Tafenoquine, the first new drug to be developed in over 60 years to treat relapsing malaria, has in fact been around since the late 1970s, when researchers with the US Walter Reed Army Institute of Research first took note of its antimalarial properties. But the drug’s potential to cure relapsing malaria caused by the Plasmodium vivax parasite, the less deadly but most widespread malaria species, has only been recently been recognised. Continue reading ->
Alejandro Llanos-Cuentas has been fighting P vivax malaria in Peru throughout most of his professional life. For many years, he failed to see significant inroads in control of the disease, which is most prevalent in the remote communities of the country’s Amazon region. Continue reading ->
Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) tells the story of the new single-dose tefanoquine treatment for relapsing malaria, caused by the Plasmodium vivax species of the parasite – the most widespread in the world. Continue reading ->
A powerful new single-dose anti-malarial drug can significantly lower the risk of recurrent malaria from the Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) species of the parasite, according to clinical trial results published today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Continue reading ->
An African medicines agency, the continent’s first super-regulator, could be approved as soon as next year. Continue reading ->