NECT

NECT, a simplified combination of oral nifurtimox co-administered with intravenous
eflornithine, has successfully showed excellent efficacy and safety profiles, and is a
new therapeutic option in the treatment of second-stage sleeping sickness.

• comparable efficacy and safety with eflornithine (gold standard)
• safer than melarsoprol, a highly toxic, arsenic-based drug that kills 5% of treated patients (still used in 70% of patients with advanced-stage sleeping sickness)
• easier to administer & to transport
  - Less burden on the health infrastructure
  - More convenient for the patient
• more affordable
  - Fewer quantities of drug and related materials
  - Shorter hospitalization
• potentially protective against the emergence of resistant parasites
• HOWEVER, it involves two drugs with different routes of administration and requires trained health care workers because of the intravenous infusions

Update (March 2010):
Six countries have signed the supply request for now: Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Chad, Sudan, Uganda, and Equatorial Guinea.


NECT: Background and advantages
NECT is the first new combination treatment in 25 years against sleeping sickness. It is more convenient for the patients, puts fewer burdens on health staff and cuts the cost for medicine, transport, and hospitalisation.
NECT (English)
NECT (Français)


WHO Essential Medicines List 2009
WHO includes combination of eflornithine and nifurtimox in its Essential List of Medicines for the treatment of human African trypanosomiasis


NECT in the media
Lancet, July 2009: "Nifurtimox-eflornithine combination therapy for second-stage African Trypanosoma brucei gambiense trypanosomiasis: a multicentre, randomised, phase III, non-inferiority trial" by Priotto G, Kasparian S, Mutombo W, Ngouama D, Ghorashian S, Arnold U, Ghabri S, Baudin E, Buard V, Kazadi-Kyanza S, Ilunga M, Mutangala W, Pohlig G, Schmid C, Karunakara U, Torreele E, Kande V.
An accompanying Lancet editorial calls the NECT study ‘more than a small victory over sleeping sickness'.
The Guardian, May 15, 2009: "New treatments raise hope of cutting sleeping sickness deaths"


Press releases

• September 2009: NECT: Improved treatment for sleeping sickness now available [Français]
• May 2009: NECT Added to WHO Essential Medicines List as Combination Treatment Against Sleeping Sickness [Français]
• December 2008: Positive Results for Improved Treatment Against Sleeping Sickness [Français] [Español]

Event
To celebrate the availability of NECT, DNDi organized a Public Event with the HAT Platform and the key NECT partners in the frame of the ISCTRC meeting, which takes place in September 2009 in Kampala, Uganda.

To learn more about NECT, please visit our Projects Portfolio.