The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) welcomes new financial support from the Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund to enable the global evaluation and registration of fosravuconazole for eumycetoma. This support aims to introduce innovation for patients with eumycetoma by advancing fosravuconazole, a new oral antifungal treatment specifically designed to meet the needs of patients in low-resource, endemic settings. The grant amount is roughly estimated at JPY 331 million (approx. EUR 1.8 million).
The objective of this project is to generate additional evidence to support the WHO recommendation and potential regulatory registration of fosravuconazole for eumycetoma across diverse endemic regions through confirmation of its efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetics. This includes generating evidence against causative organisms beyond Madurella mycetomatis, a major causative pathogen of eumycetoma.
Eumycetoma is a severely neglected tropical disease that causes chronic, destructive infections, often leading to disability, amputation, loss of income, and social stigma. The disease primarily affects people in resource-constrained rural communities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Although it remains underreported, global estimates suggest that more than 100,000 people may be living with the disease worldwide, with several thousand new cases occurring each year.
Fosravuconazole is an oral azole antifungal treatment discovered by Eisai and approved in Japan for onychomycosis. It has the potential to become an effective, more patient-friendly therapy for eumycetoma, with a good safety profile demonstrated by the Phase II clinical trial results in Sudan. Current therapies for eumycetoma require long-term daily dosing and are often poorly tolerated. Fosravuconazole enables once-weekly dosing, does not require food for optimal absorption, and presents a reduced risk of drug-drug interactions, supporting better adherence in rural communities. Its low pill burden also lowers distribution and patient costs, making it a more scalable, affordable treatment.
For more information about mycetoma and DNDi’s work on the disease, please visit: Mycetoma | DNDi
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 populations. DNDi is developing medicines for sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, female genital schistosomiasis, mycetoma, dengue, paediatric HIV, 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 collaborated with public and private partners worldwide to deliver fourteen new treatments for six deadly diseases, saving millions of lives. dndi.org
Media contact
Yoko Noda (Tokyo, Japan)
ynoda@dndi.org
+81 70 4465 5453
Frédéric Ojardias (Geneva, Switzerland)
fojardias@dndi.org
+41 79 431 62 16
Photo credit: Lameck Ododo-DNDi
