Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative - DNDi

In a recent article by The Medicine Maker, Delali A., our North America Director, calls for a new R&D model that puts neglected communities first.   Current gaps in medical innovation: 🌍 Millions of people lack access to diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines, especially for neglected diseases. 👩👧 Women and children are disproportionately impacted by the lack of medical research and tailored treatments. 🌡️ Climate change is accelerating the spread of climate-sensitive diseases, like dengue, hitting hardest in communities already facing climate challenges.   What we need: A patient-centered R&D model that prioritizes community needs over profits.   At DNDi, we work alongside communities, doctors, and researchers in regions affected by neglected diseases. As Delali says, “If we realize a drug candidate or a new project won’t fit patients’ specific needs, we tweak it until it does – or we stop developing it.”   🔗 Read more on reshaping R&D for global health: https://lnkd.in/eD2J-PTv   #GlobalHealth #HealthcareEquity #BeatNTDs  

At DNDi, we're committed to advancing research on new treatments for neglected diseases. One way we do this is by conducting clinical studies around the world. But there’s another vital way we’re supporting progress: by sharing our study data with other researchers. 📊🤝   Our study data can help others to deliver life-saving treatments for neglected diseases, but we must protect the privacy of our study participants. Thanks to our partners Privacy Analytics, we’re achieving this by de-identifying datasets before sharing them, ensuring privacy while promoting transparency.   This #OpenAccessWeek, we’re excited to share a case study by Privacy Analytics on how we’re advancing global health research together. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/eVm6GDFA   #OAWeek #NeglectedDiseases #GlobalHealth #Research

🚨 Where are the funds for diseases affecting one billion of the world's poorest? Neglected diseases continue to impact over one billion people, but the funding for prevention, treatment, and research and development (R&D) remains alarmingly insufficient. Thank you Salud por Derecho - Right to Health Foundation, Fundacion ANESVAD, Médicos Sin Fronteras España, AGENCIA ESPAÑOLA DE COOPERACION INTERNACIONAL PARA EL DESARROLLO - AECID, Pan American Health Organization for joining us at this important event. It was a timely opportunity to come together and discuss the challenges faced by R&D actors and potential solutions for addressing the severe underfunding of efforts to combat these diseases. 👉 Find out more by reading this article published in Planeta Futuro EL PAÍS: https://lnkd.in/gxmiS8ZJ #NTDs #GlobalHealth #NeglectedDiseases

Community over commercialization, the theme of open access week this year, resonates with our values at DNDi: we build partnerships to find cures for diseases that have no commercial interest. In the last few months, we have published about: 💊Testing a drug for the devasting fungal disease mycetoma, with partners in Sudan 🔬 Investigating how people with different forms of leishmaniasis respond to the same treatment, with partners in six countries in Europe and Africa 📜 A protocol to help researchers implement an important in vivo model of Chagas disease, with partners in Brazil and all of these publications are available open access! 🔗 Two dose levels of once-weekly fosravuconazole versus daily itraconazole in combination with surgery in patients with eumycetoma in Sudan: a randomised, double-blind, phase 2, proof-of-concept superiority trial. https://lnkd.in/exMj9C-Y 🔗 Disease-specific differences in pharmacokinetics of paromomycin and miltefosine between post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis and visceral leishmaniasis patients in eastern Africa. https://lnkd.in/erGWx4Gh 🔗 Demystifying In Vivo Bioluminescence Imaging of a Chagas Disease Mouse Model for Drug Efficacy Studies. https://lnkd.in/ey3BswGv #OAWeek #NTDs #partnerships

"I hate to see my face in the mirror. I don’t like to go to study or go to school." Munni is suffering from post-kala azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL), a painful skin condition caused by black fever, also known as visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Her lesions, resembling the disfigurements caused by leprosy, are a harsh reminder of the disease’s lingering impact. 🌍Climate change is worsening the spread of black fever, which causes weight loss, high fever, and organ damage in individuals like Munni. Rising temperatures and erratic rainfall help sandflies thrive, making the disease more widespread. 🔬Our South Asia director, Dr Kavita Singh, emphasises the urgent need for simplified treatments and faster diagnostics for VL. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e_UasdEt Aliya Bashir The Xylom #ClimateChange #BlackFever

🌟We are honored to receive Research!America: Discovery. Innovation. Health.’s Rapid Translation Award for our contribution to public health progress in a timely way. Our North America Executive Director, Delali A., will accept the award on behalf of DNDi. At DNDi, we remain dedicated to accelerating drug development for neglected diseases, which primarily impact poor and marginalized communities. A big thank you to all our partners for their continued support! Together, we are making meaningful progress in global health. 🌍💊 #RAAwards #GlobalHealth #NeglectedDiseases #Innovation #Partnerships 

Submissions for #OpenChagas are open!🔬 Open Chagas is a new platform for open innovation and collaboration between DNDi and the Latin American Chagas disease drug discovery community. Researchers from Latin America who submit their projects will receive free review and professional feedback on their #Chagas disease drug discovery projects from DNDi experts. Hear more about who can submit projects and how to get involved from DNDi Drug Discovery Coordinator Luiza Cruz. 📅 Submissions are open until 31 December 2024. 🔗 Learn more and submit your project here: dndi.org/open-chagas

Did you know that the technology developed by 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners is being used for neglected diseases?   Google DeepMind’s AI protein structure prediction model, #AlphaFold, has contributed to DNDi’s work to discover new medicines for millions of people facing neglected diseases such as Chagas and leishmaniasis. This is how we envision scientific progress: making a difference for the most vulnerable communities on our planet.   Huge congratulations to The Nobel Prize laureates Demis Hassabis & John Jumper from our partner DeepMind, along with David Baker, for their truly game-changing discoveries and tremendous achievement.

How are life-saving drugs discovered? 🤔 We're on a mission to de-mystify how treatments 💊 for life-threatening diseases are developed, and we're starting with host-directed therapies. In the first of a new series, our Senior Discovery Project Manager Fanny Beltran Escudié explains how drugs targeted at the human body rather than the cause of illness aren't as crazy as they sound - and could help save the lives of thousands of people with neglected diseases! Want to know even more? Visit the Drug Discovery Explained website: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dCNph2cA BenevolentAI | Institut Pasteur Korea | Fiocruz | Universidade Estadual de Campinas | USP - Universidade de São Paulo | Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute | London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, U. of London | Drug Discovery Unit, University of Dundee | Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp | Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit MORU | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center | Diamond Light Source | University of Oxford

🆕 📣 We're very pleased to announce our 2024 Projects of the Year! These recognise DNDi R&D teams and key partners for outstanding progress in the areas of pre-clinical and clinical research. 🔗 Read our full announcement: https://lnkd.in/e8VQdkwS 🔸 Project of the Year in pre-clinical research: DNDI-6899 for leishmaniasis Last year, Bangladesh became the first country to officially eliminate visceral leishmaniasis, and other countries in South Asia and Eastern Africa are making steady strides toward elimination – thanks in part to safer, simpler treatments made possible by DNDi research. Today, our focus is on delivering all-new, all-oral treatments that are still needed to achieve and sustain this progress. The promising compound DNDI-6899 is now among the front-running candidates in our leishmaniasis portfolio, with preparations for continued Phase I research now underway. 🔸 Project of the year in clinical research: Fexinidazole for T.b. rhodesiense sleeping sickness In 2023, a favourable opinion from the European Medicines Agency paved the way for fexinidazole to be distributed in African countries where the most acute and lethal form of sleeping sickness is prevalent. In 2024, the World Health Organization changed its treatment guidelines to recommend the drug as first-line treatment for the T.b. rhodesiense form of the disease. Together with project partners, our teams are proud to have delivered the innovation needed to move us one important step closer to sustainable sleeping sickness control and elimination. We sincerely thank all the partners who contributed to these projects 🙏 : DNDI-6899: GSK Global Health Unit | Drug Discovery Unit, University of Dundee | WuXi AppTec | University of Liverpool | Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Fexinidazole: Ministry Of Health Malawi | Uganda National Health Research Organization (UNHRO) | Rumphi Hospital, Malawi | Lwala Hospital, Uganda | Makerere University | Universidade Nova de Lisboa | IHMT NOVA | IRD | Epicentre, Paris, Maradi, Mbarara | Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute | World Health Organization #leishmaniasis #sleepingsickness