DNDi is preparing for the implementation phase of artesunate amodiaquine (AS/AQ), one of the two fixed-dose combination therapies for malaria.
We are in the process of analysing the protocol situations in Africa and selecting priority countries for implementation of AS/AQ, which will be registered in Morocco. Meanwhile, the registration dossier for artesunate mefloquine (AS/MQ) is being compiled for submission to the registration authorities in Brazil. Goal is to file by May and obtain registration authorisation by end 2006.

Built by DNDi, with funds provided by a Swiss philanthropic organization, the LRTC will function both as a treatment and research facility for patients suffering from VL, also known as kala-azar.
Professor Asrat Hailu, a senior researcher in the Faculty of Medicine at Addis Ababa University, commented, “In a country where research is not yet fully considered as a part of the solution to the problems that face us, and hence where capacity for clinical research is rudimentary, the roadmap of DNDi could not have been more timely.”

The LRTC is part of DNDi's Leishmaniasis East Africa Platform (LEAP) that brings together a regional group of scientists and institutions working on developing clinical trial capacity to bring new treatments to patients suffering from VL. LEAP currently involves clinical trial sites in 3 countries - Ethiopia, Sudan, and Kenya.

With an inclusive strategy that utilizes existing expertise in disease-endemic regions, DNDi currently has eight projects focused on leishmaniasis – 2 in the early drug discovery stage, 3 in preclinical studies, and 3 in clinical testing. Because current treatment requires a 30-day course of painful injections given in a hospital, there is a need for both immediate improvements in terms of availability and cost as well as longer-term innovation in terms of efficacy and prevention of resistance.