The Chagas Clinical Research Platform was launched in 2009 at Uberaba in Brazil, and brings together partners, experts, and stakeholders in a network, which will provide support to the successful evaluation and development of new treatments for Chagas disease. The main objectives of the platform are to facilitate clinical research by creating a forum for technical discussions, to develop a critical mass of expertise and to strengthen institutional research capacities. In addition, the platform will continuously identify and review priority needs, work towards standardisation of methodology to assess drugs efficacy to treat T. Cruzi infection, review alternatives for using current drugs approved (new schemes, doses, combination), special scenarios (resistance), and link investigators and groups of experts on Chagas disease in a collaborative network.

Three clinical trials are planned to start in the first semester of 2010. The first is a population pharmacokinetics study of paediatric benznidazole and will be conducted in Argentina at sites in Buenos Aires as well as in the north of the country where the disease is highly prevalent. The second one is an evaluation of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) blood test or assessment of therapeutic response in patients with chronic indeterminate Chagas disease, and the third study, conducted in Bolivia, is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of E1224, a pro-drug of ravuconazole.