Day 1 – Monday, 1 August 2022
The first day of WorldLeish 7 started with an inaugural lecture by Dr Jorge Alvar, Senior Advisor and former Head of Leishmaniasis at DNDi. The lecture included an overview of the visceral leishmaniasis landscape, highlighting major scientific advances towards the elimination of the disease in the last 15 years.
Linking diseases and humanitarian issues, Dr Alvar pointed out the importance of different stakeholders and decision-makers coordinating efforts to reduce poverty and other social determinants to improve health and promote real change for people with leishmaniasis.
With regards to future goals, Dr Alvar spoke about some key points to develop a strategic framework, such as scaling investments, country leadership, stakeholders’ mobilization, decentralization of diagnosis and treatment, improving existing treatments, and developing new effective and accessible oral drugs.
Day 2 – Tuesday, 2 August 2022
DNDi´s Executive Director, Dr Bernard Pécoul, opened the second day of WorldLeish 7 with a plenary address. Dr Pécoul gave an overview of current treatment options for leishmaniasis and their limitations. He then presented DNDi’s short- and long-term strategies to develop better treatments for this neglected disease. His presentation also included a new short film: From neglect to hope: Voices of leishmaniasis.
The afternoon began with a high-level discussion about neglected tropical diseases in global health, with the participation of opinion leader Jorge Alvar (Senior Advisor and former Head of Leishmaniasis, DNDi), Iván D. Vélez (PECET-Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia), Ren Minghui (WHO, Switzerland), Peter Hotez (Baylor College of Medicine, USA), Bernard Pécoul, and Kayla Laserson (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, India). The second day of WorldLeish 7 also included DNDi experts speaking on a variety of topics, such as the role of innovation in R&D for visceral leishmaniasis elimination and research advances on Chagas disease treatment.
Furthermore, Florencia Segal from Novartis shared the journey towards developing a new chemical entity for leishmaniasis with positive preliminary results in safety and tolerance with a single dose. DNDi will be working together with Novartis to conduct Phase II proof-of-concept clinical trials in India and Eastern Africa.
The day finished with a presentation by Byron Arana, Head of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Disease at DNDi, who presented promising results of a new drug candidate to treat visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis and Chagas disease.
Day 3 – Wednesday, 3 August 2022
On the third day of the WorldLeish 7, DNDi presented promising advances in its portfolio of NCEs for leishmaniasis. The sessions, led by Charles Mowbray and Jadel Kratz, representatives of our drug discovery team, shared insights on the value of innovation and collaborative projects to address the needs of neglected populations affected by leishmaniasis in endemic countries. The day’s agenda also included a lecture presenting new recommendations for the treatment of leishmaniasis in the Americas released last June by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which considered evidence generated through studies led by DNDi and partners. In addition, Fabiana Alves, DNDi NTD Leishmaniasis-Mycetoma Cluster Director, presented an oral session that explored the progress, main challenges, and future prospects for new visceral leishmaniasis treatments.
The symposium ‘LEAP: An Ongoing Experience’, chaired by Monique Wasunna, DNDi Eastern Africa Director, highlighted the Leishmaniasis East Africa Platform’s transformation from a network of partners conducting research for new treatments to one which is now also focused on accelerating access to treatment. The symposium included presentations from representatives from the Ministries of Health and LEAP member countries.
In another special session of the day, redeLEISH, the Leishmaniasis Research Network, released a manifesto calling on the scientific community and health authorities to urgently prioritize the development of simple diagnostic tools for cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). A small awards ceremony for LEAP and redeLEISH members was held after the session, recognizing recent progress in DNDi clinical research studies evaluating the combination of miltefosine and paramomycin for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis in Eastern Africa and CpG-D35 for the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis – reinforcing the value of partnerships and alliances in these and other DNDi initiatives working to bring the best science for neglected populations.
Day 4 – Thursday, 4 August 2022
‘Future prospects in the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis’, one of many WorldLeish 7 sessions sponsored by DNDi, was held on the fourth day of the conference. The symposium explored the development of immunomodulators and topical treatments for CL, as well as challenges in CL diagnosis and knowledge gaps remain to be addressed to accelerate progress from basic research to clinical research and the development of novel oral treatments. DNDi Senior R&D Manager, Jadel Kratz, shared the expected outcomes of a collaborative, multidisciplinary project working to develop new drug discovery tools to address challenges in moving NCEs forward into DNDi’s first-ever Phase II clinical trials for CL.
In a discussion led by the Global Visceral Leishmaniasis Data Platform of the Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO), Fabiana Alves, DNDi NTD Leishmaniasis-Mycetoma Cluster Director, discussed the use of data to improve the efficiency of clinical trials for the development of new VL treatments, as well as future prospects for improving R&D data platforms for the development of new drugs.
Day 5 – Friday, 5 August 2022
On the fifth day of WorldLeish 7, DNDi presented the session ‘New hope for leishmaniasis: how to communicate to a broader non-scientific audience’ led by Marcela Dobarro, Regional Communications Manager of DNDi Latin America. The discussion covered communication in the context of scientific research as well as the link between health and social inequalities. The panelists Lina Pinto Garcia, Andrew Wight, and Efrain Rincón Alves shared their experience in communicating on topics that directly affect the leishmaniasis landscape in Colombia, such as armed conflict, coca deforestation, and neglected populations in remote areas.
In the afternoon Samuel Teshome, Senior Clinical Project Manager at DNDi, presented results from the Phase II clinical trial conducted in Sudan to find a better treatment for post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL).
The day also included a discussion on visceral elimination in Africa, chaired by Jorge Alvar, Senior Advisor and Former Head of Leishmaniasis at DNDi, and Carol Karutu, Vice President, Programs at The END Fund in Kenya.
