Deadly Gaps Persist in New Drug Development for Neglected Diseases

This study reports a slight increase of 2.4 new products/year for 2000-2011 and predicts 4.7 new products/year through 2018. "Although strides have been made in the last decade, we still see deadly gaps in new medicines for some of the world's least visible patients," said Dr. Nathalie Strub-Wourgaft, medical director of DNDi.  "We need to get more treatment candidates, NCEs or existing ones for repurposing, into and through the R&D pipeline to fundamentally change the way we manage these diseases."   "Our patients are still waiting for true medical breakthroughs," said Dr. Jean-Hervé Bradol of MSF, a co-author of the study. "People are still suffering and dying from these diseases, and health care providers must be able to offer all patients—irrespective of their ability to pay—the best treatment possible. Only then will we say that we have made progress."     Research article: Pedrique B et al. The drug and vaccine landscape for neglected diseases (2000-11): a systematic assessment. LancetGlobal Health, Early Online Publication, 24 Oct 2013.   Study background: This study comes a decade after MSF hosted a major conference in New York to examine the crisis in R&D for neglected diseases and lay the groundwork for the creation of DNDi in 2003. In a 2001 study carried out by MSF and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Working Group, the precursor to DNDi, only 1.1 percent o...
Source: MSF News - Category: Global & Universal Source Type: news