‘Drug Discovery Booster’ for neglected diseases

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and four pharmaceutical companies have announced a consortium to accelerate drug discovery for two of the world's most neglected diseases.

The consortium – ‘Neglected Tropical Diseases Drug Discovery Booster’ – will aim to search millions of unique compounds and find new treatments for the tropical diseases leishmaniasis and Chagas disease.

“This experimental approach to radically modernise drug development for neglected diseases is the result of a decade of growing partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. This experiment could significantly reduce the time and money it takes to find new, promising treatment leads, and echoes the great potential of innovative research and development collaborations,” said Executive Director of DNDi Dr Bernard Pécoul.

The Drug Discovery Booster will simultaneously search the libraries of the four pharmaceutical companies – Eisai Co Ltd, Shionogi & Co Ltd, Takeda Pharmaceutical Ltd, and AstraZeneca plc – involved in the initiative. It will aim to pinpoint compounds that have promising characteristics for further testing. The initiative has the potential to accelerate the drug discovery process by two years.

Dr BT Slingsby who funded the initiative said: “The Drug Discovery Booster could be a game-changing milestone in the fight against diseases that destroy the health and livelihoods of the world's poorest. Industry's innovative leadership for the most neglected of the neglected diseases will be essential to accelerate progress toward creating life-saving medicines, and GHIT is proud to support the important contribution of Japanese pharmaceutical companies to make this possible.”

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