Neglected Tropical Disease News and Research

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Malaria parasite hides undetected in the liver for long time before reawakening to cause disease

Eliminating malaria in the Asia-Pacific could prove more challenging than previously thought, with new research showing that most childhood malaria infections in endemic areas are the result of relapsed, not new, infections.

5 Nov 2015

LSTM's health economists sketch out the importance for universal access to medicines

LSTM's health economists Professor Louis Niessen and Dr Jahangir Khan outline the importance for universal access to medicines in the control of neglected diseases, other major infections, and chronic diseases.

22 Oct 2015

Invasive Salmonella infections revealed as major cause of child illness and deaths in Africa

Invasive Salmonella infections in sub-Saharan Africa are a major cause of child illness and deaths, a new body of research into this usually overlooked infectious disease has revealed.

8 Oct 2015

DNDi announces successful completion of SCYX-7158 Phase I study for treatment of sleeping sickness

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) has announced today at the 9th European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health in Basel, Switzerland, the successful completion of Phase I human clinical trials for SCYX-7158 (AN5568), the first oral drug candidate specifically developed from the earliest drug discovery stage to combat human African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, a deadly parasitic disease transmitted by the tsetse fly.

9 Sep 2015

DNDi unveils plans to better respond to the needs of neglected patients

After having built the world's largest drug development pipeline for the most neglected diseases, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) has unveiled plans for a more flexible, dynamic portfolio approach, integrating various operating models to better respond to the needs of patients, notably in low- and middle-income countries. The plan also paves the way for new diseases to be taken up in DNDi's portfolio.

9 Sep 2015

Benznidazole has significant antiparasitic activity, but does not reduce progression of Chagas cardiomyopathy

A 40 to 80 day treatment with the antiparasitic medication benznidazole significantly reduced parasite activity in the blood, but not progression, of serious heart problems over a 5-year period among patients with established Chagas disease (CD) cardiomyopathy, results of the BENEFIT trial show.

1 Sep 2015

Europe has increasing prevalence of fungal resistance, warns ESCMID

The European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease – an organization that explores the risks and best practices in infectious disease – is imploring global healthcare professionals and bodies to take a more active role in the growing problem of fungal resistance.

28 Jul 2015

Study sheds light on current and potential treatment options for schistosomiasis

In a special free issue of Future Medicinal Chemistry, leading experts explore current and potential new treatment options for the deadly neglected tropical disease schistosomiasis.

28 Jul 2015

UC San Diego researchers receive NIH grant to test efficacy of Sanofi's pain drug in treating Chagas disease

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded James McKerrow, MD, PhD, director of the University of California, San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, with a 2015 New Therapeutic Uses Award.

23 Jul 2015

New approach provides more complete picture of donor support for key global health issues

As the world's leaders gather in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the Financing for Development Conference, a study published in The Lancet demonstrates that a new approach is needed for classifying funding that reflects the function the funding serves, rather than the specific disease or country. The study is the first in-depth assessment of how donor funding is spent on global versus country-specific functions of health.

14 Jul 2015

Experts call for more spending on global health aids

As experts debate the slow response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and call for better international coordination, a new analysis estimates that $22 billion was spent on global health aid in 2013, yet only a fifth of this went toward such global imperatives as research on diseases that disproportionally affect the poor, outbreak preparedness and global health leadership.

13 Jul 2015

New article highlights learnings gleaned from monitoring complex HIV clinical trials in Africa

A new article in Clinical Investigation highlights the learnings gleaned from monitoring several complex HIV clinical trials in Africa over a 15 year period.

2 Jul 2015

Tentative FDA approval of lopinavir/ritonavir oral pellet formulation closes treatment gap for children with HIV

Infants and young children living with HIV will finally have access to an improved formulation of an antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's tentative approval last week of lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) oral pellets developed by the Indian generic company Cipla.

5 Jun 2015

New ground-breaking initiative aims to find new treatments for leishmaniasis and Chagas disease

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative and four pharmaceutical firms, Eisai Co Ltd, Shionogi & Co Ltd, Takeda Pharmaceutical Ltd, and AstraZeneca plc have announced the start of a ground-breaking initiative to accelerate and cut the cost of early stage drug discovery for two of the world’s most neglected diseases, leishmaniasis and Chagas disease.

30 May 2015

GHIT Fund expands investments in leishmaniasis, diagnostic tests

The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund, which in the last two years has funded almost $32 million for innovative tools to tackle global infectious diseases, today announced additional investments of nearly $11 million that bring its portfolio to approximately $43 million.

22 May 2015

Researchers identify three genes involved in choroid plexus carcinoma

Researchers have identified three genes that play a pivotal role in the brain tumor choroid plexus carcinoma (CPC), a discovery that lays the groundwork for more effective treatment of this rare, often fatal cancer. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists led the study, which appears today in the journal Cancer Cell.

12 May 2015

Papers on antibiotic resistance, neglected diseases and future of the ocean to be discussed during G7 summit

Today the national science academies of the G7 countries handed three statements to their respective heads of government for discussion during the G7 summit at Schloss Elmau in early June 2015. The papers on antibiotic resistance, neglected and poverty-related diseases, and the future of the ocean were drawn up by the seven national academies under the aegis of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

30 Apr 2015

Study explores artemisinin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum malaria

According to the World Health Organization's 2014 World Malaria Report, there are an estimated 198 million cases of malaria worldwide with 3.3 billion people at risk for contracting the infection. Although the impact of malaria is still significant, the statistics reflect a considerable reduction in the global malaria burden. Since 2010, disease transmission has been reduced by 30 percent and mortality due to malaria has decreased by almost half.

21 Apr 2015

Novel financing technique may unlock funding for developing 'orphan' drugs to treat rare diseases

A paper published today, "Financing translation: Analysis of the NCATS rare-diseases portfolio" in Science Translational Medicine, demonstrates the potential of a new financing technique to reduce the risk associated with investing in the treatment of new diseases and potentially unlock new levels of funding for developing so-called "orphan" drugs.

28 Feb 2015

MPP, MSD sign licensing agreement for paediatric formulations of raltegravir

The Medicines Patent Pool announced a licence today with MSD, known as Merck in the United States and Canada, for paediatric formulations of raltegravir, a key medicine approved for children living with HIV four weeks of age and older.

24 Feb 2015