Recent news
August 2011
Innovative and collaborative partnerships key to drug development, blog says
August 17, 2011 -- For some neglected diseases of the developing world, the only available treatments are “toxic and painful to administer,” Bernard Pecoul, head of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, writes in a new blog post. The post is the third in the new Results for Development Institute (R4D) series on product development partnerships, launched on its Center for Global Health Policy Assessment blog.
Pecoul writes that in order to address the critical need for new treatments, DNDi is “dedicated to developing new, field-adapted treatments for patients suffering from neglected tropical diseases, including those with the highest case-fatality rates: sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, and kala azar (visceral leishmaniasis). Malaria was also an early focus of DNDi, and new research and development (R&D) programs for pediatric HIV and specific helminth infections were added this year.” But “we cannot—and do not—do this alone,” Pecoul writes, adding, “In fact, we can only accomplish our work through innovative and collaborative South-South and North-South partnerships.”
In addition, DNDi works “to ensure that sound policies are in place to enable greater patient needs-driven R&D. This includes appropriate incentives and financing mechanisms, innovative regulatory pathways that will expedite access, and open innovation approaches that ensure the widest possible sharing of research knowledge and data.” Pecoul concludes, “Establishing partnerships and enabling policies are key elements of DNDi’s start-to-finish approach—from drug discovery to treatment implementation—to tackle the urgent health needs of the most neglected patients.” See the link below for more information.
