Developing a rapid cure for millions at risk of blindness

Filaria: river blindness

Developing a rapid cure for millions at risk of blindness

With a portfolio of four R&D projects, we are advancing the development of new drug candidates to develop a safe, effective, field-adapted treatment.

Filarial diseases are a debilitating group of diseases caused by parasitic worms transmitted by the bite of blood-feeding insects. People are infected with river blindness (also known as onchocerciasis) by repeated exposure to blackflies that breed in fast-flowing rivers. The flies transmit worms that can cause severe itching and disfiguring skin lesions, and repeated infection can lead to blindness. Millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa are at risk.

Treatments that can kill adult filarial worms and be used for individual patient treatment are urgently needed. The current approach to eliminating river blindness is based on the mass distribution of ivermectin. While successful in reducing the prevalence of the disease, these programmes need to be repeated for 10-12 years because the drug only kills juvenile worms – not the adult worms, which can live for more than ten years in the human body.

million

people are infected with river blindness

0 million

people with vision loss

0 %

infected people live in 31 African countries

‘Sometimes I cry all night, sometimes from suffering, sometimes from misery, and sometimes from poverty… My heart hurts from my lack of hope. I live a life of suffering.’

Gertride Mapuani, a 61-year-old with river blindness, divorced and thrown out of her house by her husband because of the disease, in Babagulu village, DRC.

What we have achieved

We have built a portfolio of four R&D projects for river blindness and are pursuing the pre-clinical development of drug candidates.

What we are doing for people with river blindness

We aim to complete development and register at least one new drug for river blindness. We are also seeking to identify potential new drug candidates by evaluating registered drugs, as well as pre-clinical and clinical drug candidates to populate the empty drug pipeline.

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Translational research

Emodepside

New effective, field-adapted drug. Together with Bayer Pharma, we are working to develop emodepside as a new treatment for river blindness with the potential to kill both adult filarial worms and their embryonic larvae, which can cause debilitating and disfiguring clinical symptoms.

Translational research

Flubentylosin

Targeting Wolbachia bacteria to kill worms. The worms that cause river blindness are dependent on Wolbachia bacteria for growth, development, reproduction, and survival. We are developing a potential treatment to eliminate the bacteria and, in turn, kill the filarial worms that cause river blindness.

Making medical history for neglected patients

We develop urgently needed treatments for neglected patients and ensure they’re affordable, available, and adapted to the communities who need them

Doctor diagnosing a man in a village with his hands on the man's neck

Sleeping sickness

Transmitted by the bite of a tsetse fly and causes severe neurological disorders

We delivered a revolutionary new drug to replace toxic treatments, and have ongoing trials to eliminate this disease

Young boy sitting on a hospital bed being examined by a nurse

Chagas disease

Causes heart and vital organ damage, after people are bitten by blood-sucking bugs

We delivered the first-ever treatment for children; now we’re searching for new drug candidates and working to boost access to care

Cutaneous leishmaniasis

Leaves disfiguring, life-long scars that lead to severe social stigma

We’re working to develop safer, shorter treatments for this disabling disease

Hepatitis C

Millions are left without treatment even though effective drugs exist

We’ve delivered a treatment as simple, safe, and effective as the best drugs available today – at a fraction of the cost

Visceral leishmaniasis

Is one of the world’s biggest parasitic killers, spread by the bites of sandflies

We’re working to develop a new generation of treatments to replace drugs that are painful, ineffective, and cause side effects

COVID-19

Devasting and deadly to many, there’s too little research to help the most vulnerable

We’re accelerating research by coordinating clinical trials in low-resource settings and bringing together partners