Neglected Tropical Disease News and Research

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IAVI and Ragon Institute sign MOU to devise new vaccine strategies for AIDS

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) announced today that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ragon Institute to accelerate the development of new and promising AIDS vaccine candidates for testing.

19 Oct 2009

Genzyme named to the 2009 Dow Jones Sustainability World Index

Genzyme Corporation announced today that it was included on both the 2009 Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and North American Index. This marks the fifth consecutive year Genzyme has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability North American Index and the first year the company has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.

5 Oct 2009

Also in Global Health news: U.S. food aid declines; agriculture in Zimbabwe; U.S.-backed ITN network; reducing maternal mortality; DNDI expands; healthcare in Congo

Although U.S. food aid funding has increased by 53 percent over the last two years, a Government Accountability Office report on Wednesday said that during the same time period, the "amount of food delivered to address emergencies abroad fell 5 percent," the Washington Independent reports.

3 Oct 2009

Recent releases in Global Health

A study appearing in the Journal of Infectious Diseases explores how well access to safe drinking water reduces rates of diarrhea experienced by 6-month-old infants born to HIV-infected mothers following weaning.

25 Sep 2009

iCo Therapeutics, CPDD sign collaboration development agreement

iCo Therapeutics Inc. (TSX-V: ICO) is pleased to announce that the company has signed a collaboration development agreement with The Consortium for Parasitic Drug Development (CPDD) for the research and development of iCo's oral drug delivery technology for the treatment of neglected diseases such as leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis. Initial funding of USD $182,930 will be provided for formulation optimization for tropical conditions.

25 Sep 2009

Commitments announced at the Clinton Global Initiative

The second day of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) came to a close with a special session on Northern Ireland, following afternoon plenary and breakout sessions that focused on harnessing innovation for development.

24 Sep 2009

Also in global health news: Combating sleeping sickness in eastern Africa; China commits to developing countries; Latin America development

The African Development Bank on Tuesday announced it will award eastern African countries $70 million to help fight the neglected tropical disease, trypanasomiasis, commonly known as sleeping sickness, over six years, the Monitor/allAfrica.com reports (Pacutho, 9/22).

23 Sep 2009

Osteoporosis a growing concern in Asia

A new audit report issued by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) today shows that osteoporosis is a serious and growing problem throughout Asia.

22 Sep 2009

Merck, Wellcome Trust to launch vaccine center in India to produce vaccines for developing countries

Pharmaceutical company Merck and the Wellcome Trust have joined together to create a non-profit, £90-million (about $150 million) research center in India to facilitate the development of new vaccines, "including [those for] neglected diseases for which inadequate or no vaccines exist," Nature News reports.

18 Sep 2009

Urgent vaccine requirements for treating epidemic diseases voiced at ECI 2009

As a result of dominant media coverage of new epidemic threats such as swine influenza, other infection risks receive less public attention than they deserve. "We would like to bring to everybody's attention that the infectious diseases with the most severe consequences continue to be old acquaintances such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria and hepatitis C. About six million people worldwide die of these diseases every year," says Professor Dr. Dr. h. c. Stefan H. E. Kaufmann, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, at the 2nd European Congress of Immunology ECI 2009.

16 Sep 2009

Recent releases: health development in Afghanistan; trade agreements effect on drug access; outside experts in patent reviews; neglected disease legislation; management in public health; foreign aid reform

A Lancet editorial examines Afghanistan's progress in health developments since 2001, in light of the country's recent presidential election.

29 Aug 2009

Infectious Disease Research Institute commences clinical trial of its leishmaniasis vaccine in Sudan

IDRI (Infectious Disease Research Institute) announced today the start of a clinical trial in Sudan to test its leishmaniasis vaccine candidate for the treatment of post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL), a complication of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) which is observed in 50% of patients treated for VL in the country, predominantly affecting children.

28 Aug 2009

New consortium to tackle African sleeping sickness and Leishmaniasis

A new consortium has been formed to boost drug development for the treatment of two deadly diseases, African sleeping sickness and Leishmaniasis, which affect millions of people worldwide.

17 Aug 2009

Opinion: U.S. global health strategy; fighting drought

As the U.S. "works on a comprehensive global health strategy," we need to "expand our thinking to encompass holistic solutions that go into improving the health of the world’s poor," Bill Frist, former U.S. Senate Majority leader and current member of the Millennium Challenge Corporation's (MCC) Board of Directors, writes in a Boston Globe opinion piece.

13 Aug 2009

GlaxoSmithKline pledges $97 million investment in AIDS drugs for Africa, allows South African drugmaker to produce generic second-line treatment

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on Tuesday announced plans to invest $97 million over 10 years "to improve research, development and access to AIDS drugs in Africa," Reuters reports.

15 Jul 2009

IPS examines need for new drugs to treat neglected tropical diseases

Inter Press Service News Agency examines the shortcomings of treatments for neglected tropical diseases - which, according to the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), account "for 12 percent of the global disease burden," and 1.3 percent of the new drugs developed between 1975 to 2004.

8 Jul 2009

Lancet examines Obama's pledge to fight HIV/AIDS

The journal Lancet Infectious Diseases examines whether President Obama is fulfilling his campaign promises to tackle HIV/AIDS abroad and at home. Although Obama has surrounded himself "[w]ith lauded experts … concerns have been raised by activists that investment plans are not matching up to the rhetoric," Lancet writes.

24 Jun 2009

Merck partners with non-profit for neglected diseases initiative

The pharmaceutical company, Merck, announced Monday it was partnering with the non-profit Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) in an effort to improve treatments for neglected tropical diseases (NTD), the AP/CNBC reports.

23 Jun 2009

Distributed drug discovery for neglected diseases

Researchers from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) have developed Distributed Drug Discovery (D3), a new low-cost strategy to accelerate the discovery of drugs to treat neglected diseases such as tuberculosis, leprosy, leshmaniasis, dengue fever, and Chagas disease.

16 Jun 2009

NIH to develop therapeutics for rare and neglected diseases

The National Institutes of Health is launching the first integrated, drug development pipeline to produce new treatments for rare and neglected diseases. The $24 million program jumpstarts a trans-NIH initiative called the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases program, or TRND.

20 May 2009