• DNDi-20_Logo_No-Tagline_EN_Full Colour
  • Our work
    • Diseases
      • Sleeping sickness
      • Visceral leishmaniasis
      • Cutaneous leishmaniasis
      • Chagas disease
      • Filaria: river blindness
      • Mycetoma
      • Paediatric HIV
      • Cryptococcal meningitis
      • Hepatitis C
      • Dengue
      • COVID-19
      • Antimicrobial resistance
    • Research & development
      • R&D portfolio & list of projects
      • Drug discovery
      • Translational research
      • Clinical trials
      • Registration & access
      • Treatments delivered
    • Advocacy
      • Open and collaborative R&D
      • Transparency of R&D costs
      • Pro-access policies
  • Networks & partners
    • Partnerships
      • Our partners
      • Partnering with us
    • Global networks
      • Chagas Platform
      • HAT Platform
      • HELP Helminth Elimination Platform
      • LEAP Platform
      • redeLEISH Network
    • DNDi worldwide
      • DNDi Switzerland
      • DNDi DRC
      • DNDi Eastern Africa
      • DNDi Japan
      • DNDi Latin America
      • DNDi North America
      • DNDi South Asia/India
      • DNDi South-East Asia
      • DNDi Southern Africa
  • News & resources
    • News & stories
      • News
      • Stories
      • Statements
      • Viewpoints
      • Social media
      • eNews Newsletter
    • Press
      • Press releases
      • In the media
    • Resources
      • Scientific articles
      • Our publications
      • Videos
    • Events
  • About us
    • About
      • Who we are
      • How we work
      • Our strategy
      • Our donors
      • Annual reports
    • Our people
      • Our leadership
      • Our governance
      • Contact us
    • Work with us
      • Working at DNDi
      • Job opportunities
      • Requests for proposal
  • Donate
  • DNDi-20_Logo_No-Tagline_EN_Full Colour
  • Our work
    • Diseases
      • Sleeping sickness
      • Visceral leishmaniasis
      • Cutaneous leishmaniasis
      • Chagas disease
      • Filaria: river blindness
      • Mycetoma
      • Paediatric HIV
      • Cryptococcal meningitis
      • Hepatitis C
      • Dengue
      • COVID-19
      • Antimicrobial resistance
    • Research & development
      • R&D portfolio & list of projects
      • Drug discovery
      • Translational research
      • Clinical trials
      • Registration & access
      • Treatments delivered
    • Advocacy
      • Open and collaborative R&D
      • Transparency of R&D costs
      • Pro-access policies
  • Networks & partners
    • Partnerships
      • Our partners
      • Partnering with us
    • Global networks
      • Chagas Platform
      • HAT Platform
      • HELP Helminth Elimination Platform
      • LEAP Platform
      • redeLEISH Network
    • DNDi worldwide
      • DNDi Switzerland
      • DNDi DRC
      • DNDi Eastern Africa
      • DNDi Japan
      • DNDi Latin America
      • DNDi North America
      • DNDi South Asia/India
      • DNDi South-East Asia
      • DNDi Southern Africa
  • News & resources
    • News & stories
      • News
      • Stories
      • Statements
      • Viewpoints
      • Social media
      • eNews Newsletter
    • Press
      • Press releases
      • In the media
    • Resources
      • Scientific articles
      • Our publications
      • Videos
    • Events
  • About us
    • About
      • Who we are
      • How we work
      • Our strategy
      • Our donors
      • Annual reports
    • Our people
      • Our leadership
      • Our governance
      • Contact us
    • Work with us
      • Working at DNDi
      • Job opportunities
      • Requests for proposal
  • Donate
Home > Press releases

Wellcome commits £10 million to DNDi to develop new generation of oral drugs to treat leishmaniasis

Home > Press releases

Wellcome commits £10 million to DNDi to develop new generation of oral drugs to treat leishmaniasis

Leishmaniasis patients in a hospital
London, UK / Geneva, Switzerland — 5 Feb 2019
Share on twitter
Share on facebook
Share on linkedin
Share on email
Share on print

Wellcome has committed over £10 million to the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a not-for-profit research and development (R&D) organization, to develop new treatments for leishmaniasis, one of the world’s most devastating parasitic diseases. The three-year partnership will enable DNDi and Wellcome to develop new combinations of entirely new, all-orally acting chemical entities, through a joint strategy that also harnesses the strengths of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, academia, and product development partnerships.

“Current treatments for leishmaniasis require patients to take toxic and poorly tolerated drugs, often over a long period of time and through painful injections,” said Dr Bernard Pécoul, Executive Director DNDi. “Our R&D efforts have up until now mostly focused on bringing improvements to these existing treatments, but we are hopeful this new collaboration with Wellcome will enable us to radically overhaul the treatment landscape, by developing entirely innovative oral drugs that are safe, effective, affordable, and easy to administer.”

Over one billion people worldwide are at risk of leishmaniasis, which is transmitted by the bite of a sandfly. Visceral leishmaniasis is the most serious form of the disease, causing fever, weight loss, spleen and liver enlargement, and if left untreated, death; 50,000 to 90,000 new cases and close to 30,000 deaths are reported a year. Another form of the disease, cutaneous leishmaniasis, with 600,000 to 1 million new cases every year, can lead to disfiguration and stigmatisation for people affected. Currently, patients must undergo treatments that have serious drawbacks in terms of safety, duration, resistance, stability, and cost.

“Wellcome has a long-standing commitment to support innovative new treatments for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). This strategic investment to support DNDi’s comprehensive programme for leishmaniasis is a great opportunity to build on Wellcome’s work with a number of academic and industry partnerships in drug discovery in NTDs. As part of our Flagships initiative, we are committed to working with partners to try and drive improvements in the development process by harnessing new technologies to drive further innovation, at speed and scale. Working with DNDi on this programme, is central to achieving these goals and we’re hopeful that this will transform the lives of people suffering from this devastating disease,” said Steve Caddick, Director of Innovation at Wellcome.

The programme brings together a strong consortium of R&D partners, including the University of Dundee, Celgene, GSK, Pfizer, TB Alliance, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. These partners have built a portfolio of lead series, pre-clinical and clinical drug candidates, originating from different chemical classes with different mechanisms of action against leishmania parasites. The three-year programme will evaluate 10 drug candidates, with the aim of selecting two all-oral new chemical entities (NCEs) for testing as a combination in Phase II studies in patients.

The commitment will focus on delivering the most promising and effective NCEs and support the World Health Organization’s strategy to control and eliminate the disease.

“We are delighted to have the support of WelIcome, building on many years of fruitful collaboration between our organizations. This new partnership will help increase synergies among the leishmaniasis drug development community and potentially encourage new partners to join us. Together, we can bring the best science to deliver new oral, high efficacy and affordable drug combinations for patients,” said Dr Pécoul.

Among the donors currently supporting this programme, the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT) is the only donor providing support fully dedicated to the development of a compound developed in partnership with Takeda.

About Wellcome

Wellcome exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive. We’re a global charitable foundation, both politically and financially independent. We support scientists and researchers, take on big problems, fuel imaginations and spark debate. wellcome.ac.uk

About DNDi

A not-for-profit research and development organization, DNDi works to deliver new treatments for neglected  diseases, in particular human African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, filarial infections, mycetoma, paediatric HIV, and hepatitis C. DNDi has delivered eight new treatments since its inception in 2003.

DNDi’s programme on the development of new chemical entities for leishmaniasis is supported by grants from Wellcome, UK; Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT), Japan; Médecins sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders, International; UK Aid; Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS), The Netherlands; Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through KfW, German; Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Switzerland.

Media contacts

Wellcome
Simon Shears
+44(0)20 7611 7372
s.shears@wellcome.ac.uk

media@dndi.org

Photo credit: Anita Khemka/DNDi

Funding Partnership Drug discovery Translational research Visceral leishmaniasis

Read, watch, share

Loading...
Young man sitting in hospital setting
News
25 Jan 2023

It’s time medical innovation reached the 1.7 billion people affected by neglected tropical diseases: World NTD Day 2023

Film Poster Voices of Leishmaniasis: Shushi from India
Videos
25 Jan 2023

Voices of leishmaniasis: Shishu from India

Child receiving treatment
News
20 Jan 2023

DNDi’s 20th year of bringing the best science for the most neglected

Child affected by dengue and her mother at their home in Bangkok, Thailand.
Stories
16 Dec 2022

2022: Six advances in neglected disease research to remember

Statements
2 Dec 2022

DNDi‘s comments on the conceptual zero draft for the consideration of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body at INB3

Healthcare workers discussing in hospital setting
Press releases
1 Dec 2022

DNDi partners in a new NIHR-funded Global Health Research Group on HIV-associated Fungal Infections (IMPRINT)

Healthcare workers looking into microscopes
Press releases
30 Nov 2022

Acoziborole: Investigational single-dose oral treatment raises hope for elimination of sleeping sickness in Africa

Journalists talking with healthcare workers
News
23 Nov 2022

DNDi media workshops – bringing together reporters and researchers to cover neglected disease research

VIEW ALL

Help neglected patients

To date, we have delivered twelve new treatments, saving millions of lives.

Our goal is to deliver 25 new treatments in our first 25 years. You can help us get there. 

GIVE NOW
Facebook-f
Twitter
Instagram
Linkedin-in
Youtube
International non-profit developing safe, effective, and affordable treatments for the most neglected patients.

Learn more

  • Diseases
  • Neglected tropical diseases
  • R&D portfolio
  • Policy advocacy

Get in touch

  • Our offices
  • Contact us
  • Integrity Line

Support us

  • Donate
  • Subscribe to eNews

Work with us

  • Join research networks
  • Jobs
  • RFPs
  • Terms of Use   
  •   Acceptable Use Policy   
  •   Privacy Policy   
  •   Cookie Policy   
  •   Our policies   

  • Except for images, films and trademarks which are subject to DNDi’s Terms of Use, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Switzerland License   
We use cookies to track our audience and improve our content. By clicking 'Accept All', you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Click on 'Customize' to accept only some cookies.
Customize
ACCEPT ALL
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement1 yearSet by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category .
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
CookieLawInfoConsent1 yearRecords the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie.
PHPSESSIDsessionThis cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed.
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
CookieDurationDescription
elementorneverThis cookie is used by the website's WordPress theme. It allows the website owner to implement or change the website's content in real-time.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
CookieDurationDescription
_ga2 yearsThe _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
_ga_16Q5RH3XRG2 yearsThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics.
_gat_UA-10302561-11 minuteA variation of the _gat cookie set by Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to allow website owners to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance. The pattern element in the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to.
_gid1 dayInstalled by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress30 minutesHotjar sets this cookie to detect the first pageview session of a user. This is a True/False flag set by the cookie.
_hjFirstSeen30 minutesHotjar sets this cookie to identify a new user’s first session. It stores a true/false value, indicating whether it was the first time Hotjar saw this user.
_hjIncludedInPageviewSample2 minutesHotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's pageview limit.
_hjIncludedInSessionSample2 minutesHotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's daily session limit.
_hjSession_112884430 minutesHotjar sets this cookie.
_hjSessionUser_11288441 yearHotjar sets this cookie.
CONSENT2 yearsYouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data.
Targeting
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
SAVE & ACCEPT
Powered by CookieYes Logo