Neglected Tropical Disease News and Research

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WHO urges affected countries to increase investment in tackling neglected tropical diseases

WHO urges affected countries to scale up their investment in tackling 17 neglected tropical diseases in order to improve the health and well-being of more than 1.5 billion people. This investment would represent as little as 0.1% of current domestic expenditure on health in affected low and middle income countries for the period 2015-2030.

19 Feb 2015

Scientists identify potential target to combat leishmaniasis

Research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists has identified a potential target in the quest to develop a more effective treatment for leishmaniasis, a parasitic tropical disease that kills thousands and sickens more than 1 million people worldwide each year.

19 Feb 2015

QDREC software may help find effective treatment for schistosomiasis

For decades, scientists around the world have worked to develop a treatment for schistosomiasis, a debilitating water-born parasite that affects more than 200 million people worldwide. To aid this research, Rahul Singh, professor of computer science at San Francisco State University, has developed software that solves the key challenge of quantitatively assessing the impact of a drug on the parasite.

14 Jan 2015

R. Geigy Foundation recognizes scientific endeavours in neglected disease research, public health

The R. Geigy Foundation honours two scientific endeavours in neglected disease research and public health. It confers the R. Geigy Award (10'000 CHF) to the Laotian scientists Somphou Sayasone and the Jubilee Award (70'000) to the project "Connecting the Dots" proposed by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute.

18 Dec 2014

DNDi awarded USAID grant to develop new treatments for river blindness, elephantiasis

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative has been awarded US$ 10 million by the United States Agency for International Development to develop new treatments for onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis) - the first-ever USAID grant for neglected tropical disease research and development (R&D).

17 Dec 2014

ANTRUK welcomes first report on antibiotic resistance; becomes BIA’s 2015 charity

Professor Colin Garner, Chief Executive of Antibiotic Research UK (ANTRUK), the world’s first charity to tackle the impending health disaster of antibiotic resistance, welcomed the publication of the first report by the O’Neill Commission on antibiotic resistance.

14 Dec 2014

Bayer, DNDi sign first agreement to develop new oral treatment for onchocerciasis

Bayer HealthCare and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) have signed an agreement under which Bayer will provide the active ingredient emodepside to support DNDi in its effort to develop a new oral drug to treat river blindness (or onchocerciasis). The world's second leading infectious cause of blindness, river blindness is a neglected tropical disease caused by a filarial worm.

10 Dec 2014

Monash University, 60P Australia partner to develop Fenretinide drug for dengue fever

Monash University and 60P Australia Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of 60° Pharmaceuticals LLC, have announced today an exclusive partnering deal, with 60P obtaining rights to develop the drug Fenretinide for dengue fever.

2 Dec 2014

Gates Foundation provides $2 million grant to help fight major parasitic diseases

Almost $2 million is being invested by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help fight major parasitic diseases of the developing world.

25 Nov 2014

Research breakthroughs may pave way for new drugs to fight against parasitic worm infections

Recent breakthroughs may pave the way for vaccines and new drugs for those infected by parasitic helminths. These flatworms, including tapeworms that cause hydatid diseases and neurocysticercosis, liver flukes, and blood flukes (schistosomes), infect more than 300 million people and cause approximately four million disability-adjusted life years lost due to chronic illness and death each year.

28 Oct 2014

Treeway, LACDR join forces to optimize clinical trial designs, data-analysis for ALS

Treeway and LACDR at the University of Leiden join forces and form a collaboration focused on the optimization of clinical trial designs and data-analysis for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) through the use of population disease progression models.

16 Oct 2014

AfriCoLeish launches Phase III clinical study to test 2 treatments for HIV-VL co-infected patients

The international research & development (R&D) consortium, AfriCoLeish, formed by six research organizations from East Africa and Europe, has launched a Phase III clinical study to address the extreme difficulty in treating visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in patients who also are HIV-positive.

6 Oct 2014

Celgene Global Health, DNDi expand partnership to identify new drug candidates for NTDs

Celgene Global Health, a division of Celgene Corporation, and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative strengthen their collaboration with a four-year Research Collaboration Agreement to identify and optimize new drug candidates for the treatment of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

24 Sep 2014

Researchers to develop global database on situation and evolution of Chagas disease

The Centre for Development Cooperation (CCD) and several research groups of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) are working together with the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop a global database on the situation and evolution of Chagas disease.

31 Jul 2014

Baxter International acquires drug candidate developed to treat sickle cell disease

A drug candidate developed by researchers at the NIH's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and its collaborators to treat sickle cell disease has been acquired by Baxter International's BioScience business.

11 Jul 2014

Researchers uncover mechanism that may help explain severe forms of schistosomiasis

Researchers at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts and Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) have uncovered a mechanism that may help explain the severe forms of schistosomiasis, or snail fever, which is caused by schistosome worms and is one of the most prevalent parasitic diseases in the world. The study in mice, published online in The Journal of Immunology, may also offer targets for intervention and amelioration of the disease.

17 Apr 2014

GHIT Fund announces grants to speed up innovative drug development for neglected diseases

The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund, a new public health partnership that is bringing Japanese know-how and investment to the global fight against infectious diseases, today announced three grants worth a total of US$6.8 million to speed the development of innovative drugs for some of the world’s most neglected diseases—schistosomiasis, Chagas disease and parasitic roundworms.

20 Mar 2014

Erlotinib has promising potential to improve treatment for cervical cancer

A new clinical study has found that erlotinib, a targeted antitumor agent, has promising potential to improve treatment for cervical cancer. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the results indicate that larger trials are warranted to determine whether the drug should become part of standard therapy for women with the disease.

10 Mar 2014

A-PARADDISE consortium obtains funds to develop innovative therapies for neglected parasitic diseases

The international consortium A-PARADDISE (Anti-Parasitic Drug Discovery in Epigenetics), coordinated by Inserm, has just obtained funds of €6 million from the European Commission to conduct large-scale testing of innovative therapies against four neglected parasitic diseases: schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and malaria.

4 Mar 2014

Selcia, University of Edinburgh collaborate to develop novel treatments for sleeping sickness

An initiative is under way to develop new drugs for a devastating tropical disease that threatens almost 70 million people in Africa.

4 Feb 2014