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R&D MODEL & PORTFOLIO
ADAPTED TREATMENTS FOR THE BENEFIT OF NEGLECTED PATIENTS
The R&D strategies developed by DNDi since its inception aim to address the immediate needs of patients by improving existing therapeutic options in the short term, whilst undertaking longer term research to identify and develop entirely new compounds which will be valuable adapted tools, particularly for elimination targets set by the World Health Organization. Although not necessarily breakthrough medicines, six new treatments have been delivered to date as a result of the short-term strategy, which have brought significant benefits to patients. Phase II trials as a potential singledose oral treatment and is the first molecule to arise from DNDi’s lead optimization programme. Leishmaniasis is a complex family of diseases, and the identification of new compounds has proved challenging. Compound libraries from a variety of sources have been screened and, despite the inevitable loss of compounds to attrition, NCEs from the nitroimidazole, oxaborole, and aminopyr azole chemical families are undergoing lead optimization to combat Leishmania infections, with the nitroimidazole VL-0690 selected to go forward to
The year 2015 has been a turning point for DND i , as long-term investments have now filled the drug development pipeline with thirteen new chemical entities (NCEs) included by the end of the year, the vast majority of which
14 › DNDi Annual Report 2015
are orally available compounds for systemic use. The most clinically advanced of these are for sleeping sickness: fexinidazole, which was identified from compound mining and is a ten day oral treatment, and SCYX-7158, which is entering
