Though the COVID-19 pandemic continued to take a devastating toll in 2021, we advanced 50 projects in our research and development (R&D) portfolio, including multiple new chemical entities, delivered new treatments, and forged new alliances for innovation.

With five new chemical entities for leishmaniasis advancing in clinical trials,  our teams and partners are making major strides towards our long-term goal of developing all-new, all-oral drugs to dramatically improve treatment. We also delivered on our short-term strategy of improving treatment regimens using existing drugs, including, as this report goes to print, the World Health Organization’s release of new guidelines for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis in people living with HIV, and PAHO’s preparation of new guidelines for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis, both informed by trials conducted by DNDi and partners in India, Ethiopia, and Brazil.

Fexinidazole was approved by the US Food & Drug Administration as the first all-oral treatment for both stages of T.b. gambiense sleeping sickness, following earlier approval by regulatory authorities in Europe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Uganda. Our teams also completed data analysis for our pivotal Phase II/III trial evaluating acoziborole, a single-dose oral treatment that has the potential to secure sustainable elimination of the deadly disease.

In June 2021, ravidasvir, a new all-oral treatment for hepatitis C and the first to be developed through South-South collaboration, received conditional registration in Malaysia, following results published in The Lancet which showed 97% of participants were cured with the sofosbuvir + ravidasvir combination.

Brokering innovative South-South research collaborations such as these is a core element of DNDi’s strategy. In the past few months, we have joined with government, science, and industry partners in India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Brazil to find a safe, effective, and affordable treatment for dengue fever, reinforcing DNDi’s strategic imperative to address climate-sensitive diseases.

Our 2021-2028 Strategic Plan also reaffirms our commitment to bridging critical gaps in R&D for child-friendly medicines to ensure that every child enjoys their full right to health and access to safe, effective treatment. DNDi has delivered five treatments designed specifically to meet children’s needs since our founding, including our most recent: a ‘4-in-1’ combination treatment for children with HIV that was registered by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority in May 2022.

Our teams have also remained focused on pandemic preparedness and response. We continued to lead a consortium of 25 partner organizations from Africa and around the world conducting the ANTICOV clinical trial across 20 sites in 13 African countries to answer the need for outpatient treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in resource-constrained settings, a question largely left unanswered by others. We also worked to identify drug candidates for COVID-19 and future coronaviruses, including through the Moonshot project, a non-profit, open-science consortium of scientists dedicated to the discovery of affordable and accessible drugs against viral pandemics. We hope to see new potential treatments advancing to clinical testing in 2023.

Our mission is also to help build a more equitable system for innovation and access. We continued work to influence policy decisions to improve access to the fruits of scientific progress for all, urging the international community to learn the positive lessons and avoid repeating mistakes that would hinder innovation of and access to health technologies for COVID-19 and future pandemics.

As this report goes to print, DNDi is preparing to join government and global health leaders for the Kigali Summit on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases, where we will share our belief that innovation is the key to a disease-free generation. We will continue to do our part to deliver the safe and effective therapeutic innovations needed to save lives and achieve sustainable disease elimination.

Finally, as we set our sights on the great opportunities and important work that lie ahead, we are delighted to welcome Dr Luis Pizarro as DNDi’s incoming Executive Director. Luis is a proven leader and constant ally in global collaborations advancing medical innovation and access to healthcare for vulnerable populations.  Together, we look forward to this exciting time for DNDi.

On behalf of everyone at DNDi, we thank you for helping to make our experiment in innovation for neglected patients a success.

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