Charity and drug company work together to develop cure for Chagas’ disease

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) has entered into an agreement with a drug company to develop the first new compound in nearly 40 years to treat Chagas’ disease. An estimated eight million people are infected with the parasite that causes the disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, a third of whom will die of heart or intestinal disease if left untreated.

Chagas’ disease is endemic in Latin American and Caribbean countries, and migration patterns have spread it worldwide. About 300 000 people in the United States are thought to be infected with it (BMJ 2009;339:b2859, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2859).

In an agreement with the …