Annual Report 2020

Medicines for the people

Annual Report 2020

Medicines for the people

Our teams and partners advanced work on more than 40 R&D projects in 2020, including 22 clinical trials conducted across 83 sites in 28 countries. More than 3,000 patients – nearly half of them children – were actively enrolled in DNDi trials. We also mobilized our networks and applied our experience in needs-driven, non-profit R&D and access to COVID-19.

Browse our interactive Annual Report to learn more about the strides our partnerships are making for neglected patients.

‘2020 is a year that we will look back on with pride for the tremendous momentum our teams and partners maintained across more than 40 R&D projects, standing firm in our commitment to neglected patients against unforeseen challenges and difficult odds.’

Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, Chair of the Board of Directors
& Dr Bernard Pécoul, DNDi Executive Director

2020 in numbers

R&D portfolio

  • 40+ projects
  • 20+ new chemical entities
  • 92,360 chemical compounds screened

Clinical trials

  • 22 clinical trials in 8 disease areas at 83 sites in 28 countries
  • 3,140 patients enrolled in active studies
  • 49% of patients enrolled are children

Sharing knowledge

  • 46 peer-reviewed scientific publications
  • 98% published in open-access journals
  • 50% had a female lead or co-lead author
  • 74% had at least one author from a partner institution in an endemic country

Maximizing the partnership model

  • 4.6:1 ratio of partners vs. DNDi FTEs*
  • 14:1 ratio of partner vs. DNDi FTEs* in Africa

Contributions and expenditure

  • EUR 56 million in multi-year funds secured
  • EUR 5 million in-kind contributions and collaborative funding from partners
  • 89% of expenditure on social mission to maximize impact for neglected patients

Fostering inclusive & sustainable solutions

  • 1,275 people trained to support clinical research in Africa, Asia, and Latin America
  • 66% of all R&D partner FTEs* are in Africa

*Staff in full-time equivalents

From bench to bedside

R&D Portfolio December 2020
DNDi Portfolio December 2020

Acting as a ‘conductor of a virtual orchestra’, we collaborate with research partners around the world at all stages of the R&D process.

Our R&D portfolio includes 48 projects and more than 20 new chemical entities for 8 disease areas (as of December 2020).

New treatments in clinical development

A total of 22 clinical trials in 2020:

  • 6 clinical trial started
  • 15 clinical trials ongoing
  • 1 clinical trial completed

The road ahead: Our new strategic plan

In 2020, dozens of partners and donors who have propelled our work since 2003 joined us to take stock of our progress and accompany our teams in plotting an ambitious course of action for neglected patients for the years ahead.

Our new 2021-2028 Strategic Plan charts an eight-year journey to deliver 15 to 18 new treatments, for a total of 25 new treatments in our first 25 years.

Our work will contribute directly to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including Universal Health Coverage; multi-sector ‘One Health’ approaches for disease control and elimination; and WHO strategies, including the 2030 Roadmap for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). A key measure of our shared progress in meeting these ambitions will be the extent to which health systems provide healthcare for all, including women, children, the poor, people with neglected or stigmatizing diseases, and those at the margins of society.

2020 financial information

DNDi goes beyond the required audited financial statements in providing additional key financial performance indicators on expenditures and contributions.

A word of thanks

DNDi has now delivered nine new treatments for six neglected diseases and aims to deliver 15-18 additional treatments by 2028. We are deeply grateful for the support of all our donors and partners, and for their commitment and collaboration since 2003.

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FOREWORD

From the Chair of the Board and the Executive Director

2020 will be forever remembered for the tragic loss and devastating disruption the COVID-19 pandemic brought to bear on families and communities around the world. While the scientific response to COVID-19 is enabling major advances and the development of new health technologies at unprecedented speed, millions of people remain without access to the vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments needed to save lives and guard against new waves of infection.

From the start of the pandemic, DNDi teams have been mobilizing our networks and leveraging our experience in needs-driven, non-profit research and development (R&D) to accelerate research and equitable access to health tools in low-resource settings.

In April 2020, we co-founded the COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition, which has brought together more than 800 researchers, physicians, funders, and policymakers from 88 countries to advance research that answers to the specific needs of people and health systems in low- and middleincome countries (LMICs). And in November, we launched ANTICOV, an adaptive platform trial in 13 African countries testing multiple early treatment options for mild-to-moderate COVID-19. Conducted with a consortium of 25 organizations from Africa and around the world, we aim to identify one or two safe, effective, and affordable treatments that can limit progression to severe disease and prevent fragile health systems from being overwhelmed by surges in hospitalization.

Our drug discovery teams are also contributing to the response, working with partners to identify potential treatment candidates from existing antivirals while also initiating longer-term efforts to discover all-new antiviral drug candidates for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2, future generations of coronavirus, and potentially other pandemic-prone viruses. And from the earliest days of the pandemic, we have spoken out – advocating for R&D to be driven by the public interest and for COVID-19 health tools to be developed and delivered as public goods, with equitable access for all.

2020 is also a year that we will look back on with pride for the tremendous momentum our teams and partners maintained across more than 40 R&D projects, standing firm in our commitment to neglected patients against unforeseen challenges and difficult odds.

In late 2020, our industrial partner Pharmaniaga submitted ravidasvir for the treatment of hepatitis C for regulatory approval in Malaysia, where we have worked with partners since 2016 to conduct clinical trials and pilot ‘test-and-treat’ strategies that have connected thousands of people to life-saving treatment. Granted conditional approval in June 2021, the all-new chemical entity will now be part of an affordable, safe, and highly effective all-oral cure for hepatitis C. Ravidasvir is the ninth treatment delivered by DNDi since our founding and stands out as the first drug for hepatitis C to be developed through South-South collaboration.

Our teams and partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Guinea brought us one step closer to reaching our long-term objective for people affected by sleeping sickness, completing post-treatment follow-up for all participants in our pivotal Phase II/III clinical trial of acoziborole. The single-dose oral drug for both stages of the disease holds tremendous promise as a tool to enable the sustainable elimination of sleeping sickness and reach patients in even the most remote communities.

As we pushed forward on our R&D and access agenda and lent our capacities in the response to COVID-19, so too did we cement our commitments to driving medical innovation and access for neglected patients in the years to come, launching our new Strategic Plan. It charts our course to 2028, by which time we aim to deliver an additional 15 to 18 new treatments, for a total of 25 treatments in our first 25 years. In delivering on our mission, we will double down on neglect with a proactive agenda for maternal and child health, gender-responsive R&D, and climatesensitive and pandemic-prone diseases, while leveraging new technologies to accelerate R&D and access.

Please join us as we continue to use the power of our partnerships to deliver medicines for lifethreatening
diseases that disproportionately impact poor and marginalized people, strengthen innovation ecosystems that put people’s needs first, and speak out for the policies and political will needed to leave no one behind.

We invite you to learn more about our ambitions and vision for the road ahead – and we thank the many friends, partners, and supporters who have propelled our progress so far.

READ 2020 ANNUAL REPORT
Dr Marie-Paule Kieny
Dr Marie-Paule Kieny
Chair of the Board of Directors
Dr Bernard Pécoul
Executive Director