Published 29 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2638
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2638

News

Collaborations aim to develop new drugs for neglected tropical diseases

Janice Hopkins Tanne

1 New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, on 23 June heard promising news about collaborations to develop drugs to treat neglected tropical diseases.

The meeting brought together more than 200 scientists, researchers, academics, and global health leaders from Africa and abroad to consider new treatments for diseases such as visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar), Chagas’ disease, and sleeping sickness.

The initiative said that better treatments are needed by millions of the world’s poorest people. Current treatments are often toxic, prohibitively expensive, or difficult to administer in countries with limited resources. Drug companies have little incentive to develop treatments for neglected diseases that mainly affect poor people.

Developing countries may be able to help themselves, said Monique Wasunna of the Kenya Medical Research Institute. She said that these countries had "the ability to provide new solutions for neglected diseases, but every day we face an uphill battle to find home . . . [Full text of this article]


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