Japan’s Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund awarded a two-year, JPY 294 million (approx. EUR 1.8 million) grant to the non-profit medical research organization Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and its partner Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation (MTPC), to continue their lead optimization work on a novel compound to treat Chagas disease, with the ultimate goal to deliver a new safe and effective medicine.
Chagas disease is a neglected parasitic disease that affects an estimated 6 million people worldwide and kills 12,000 people each year. It is endemic in Latin America and the southern US and is also present in Europe, Japan, and Australia. If not treated, Chagas disease can cause irreversible, life-threatening damage to the heart and other vital organs.
Current treatments for Chagas disease were developed half a century ago. While they show good efficacy, they need to be administered for eight weeks and can have serious and potentially toxic side effects. They also have not been proven effective in people with severe chronic symptoms. There is, therefore, an urgent need for new, safe and effective oral treatments for all Chagas patients that are also safe to use during pregnancy.
During the two years of this project, DNDi and MTPC will work to optimize a set of promising new lead compounds shown to have an effect against Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease. The goal is to create pre-clinical development candidate compounds that meet the profile required for such compounds.
DNDi and MTPC have been collaborating on a drug discovery project for Chagas disease with the support of the GHIT Fund since September 2019. In April 2021, they initiated a hit-to-lead project that succeeded in creating a promising new lead compound. The project was awarded the DNDi 2023 Project of the Year in pre-clinical research in the fall of 2023.
About DNDi
The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) is a not-for-profit medical research organization that discovers, develops, and delivers safe, effective, and affordable treatments for neglected people. DNDi is developing medicines for sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, river blindness, mycetoma, dengue, paediatric HIV, advanced HIV disease, cryptococcal meningitis, and hepatitis C. Its research priorities include children’s health, gender equity and gender-responsive R&D, and diseases impacted by climate change. Since its creation in 2003, DNDi has joined with public and private partners across the globe to deliver 13 new treatments, saving millions of lives.
Media contacts
In Tokyo
Yoko Noda
Mobile: +81 70 4465 5453
E-mail: ynoda@dndi.org
In Geneva
Frédéric Ojardias
Mobile: +41 79 431 62 16
E-mail: fojardias@dndi.org
Photo credit: Xavier Vahed-DNDi
