Scientists consider neglected diseases

Top researchers and scientists from 35 countries worldwide addressed the lack of drugs available for developing-world diseases at the second African Network for Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) conference in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

Davy Koech, director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute, one of the founding partners, said: "When you talk of neglected diseases you could be talking of practically every disease we suffer in this region. They are neglected not because we don’t care, but [because] the new [treatments] are very expensive and they cannot be afforded.

They are not economically viable."

The DNDi network was formed in 2003 and has a vital role to play in developing drugs and new formulations aimed to serve developing populations who suffer from neglected diseases.

The pharmaceutical market is heavily orientated towards western illnesses. Although tropical diseases account for 12 percent of the global disease burden, only 1.3 percent of all drugs invented between 1975 and 2004 dealt with tropical diseases and tuberculosis.

DNDi is a "not-for-profit organisation that concentrates on the specific needs of the patients, and concentrates on the most neglected", explained Bernard Pecoul, executive director of DNDi.

Enock Kibuguchy, Kenya’s Assistant Minister for Health, in his opening address highlighted some of the health problems suffered in Kenya.

"Kala-azar and sleeping sickness are endemic in some parts of the country. From time to time, we get epidemics of these diseases, with consequent high morbidity and mortality. These negative statistics may be attributed to lack of cheaper and accessible drugs."

Malaria is a case in point: there are 350 to 650 million clinical cases every year worldwide, 60 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, which counts for 90 percent of deaths.

One of the "key goals for DNDi has been to bring a new treatment to patients", said Pecoul.

DNDi have been involved in front-line trials of a fixed-dose therapy (one tablet contains the combination of drugs), which has led to the development of a treatment schedule that would involve one tablet a day for three days for children and only two tablets a day for three days for adults. The target price for the public sector and NGOs is only US $1 for an adult.

sm/mw