Neglected Diseases R&D Initiative To Expand Portfolio To Hepatitis C, New Antibiotics

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) is moving into new disease areas and has moved away from one, it announced this week.

Geneva-based DNDi announced an updated business plan that includes new research and development projects for hepatitis C and mycetoma (morbid inflammatory disease), as well as new antibiotics.

DNDi unveiled 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,” including adding new diseases to the portfolio, according to a press release.

DNDi recently transferred its malaria activities to the Geneva-based Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), it said.

Neglected diseases are those which predominantly affect poorer patients, making it difficult for private pharmaceutical companies to invest in the R&D where there is little market to recover costs.

The updated business plan for 2015-2023 maintains DNDi’s commitment to develop treatments for African sleeping sickness and Chagas disease as well as filarial diseases and paediatric HIV, the release said.

The new R&D for hepatitis C and mycetoma is meant to address the lack of biomedical innovation to deliver affordable, safe and effective products to poor populations.

DNDi is also expecting to create an internal task force, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, “to assess the potential of an incubator to house a new initiative focused on developing antibiotics.”

According to DNDi, by its 20th anniversary in 2023, “DNDi aims to deliver 16 to 18 new treatments with an estimated total budget of EUR 650 million.” The initiative also plans to use its experience “to forcefully advocate for a global R&D framework that guarantees both innovation and equitable patient access to health technologies.”

In the release, DNDi Executive Director Bernard Pécoul said DNDi is “now in a position to apply new R&D models, where patient needs drive drug development over profits, and where prices of drugs are delinked from the cost of their development.”

 

Image Credits: DNDi