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DNDi is a not-for-profit drug development initiative established in 2003 by four publicly-funded research organisations - Kenya Medical Research Institute, Indian Council for Medical Research, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation Brazil, Malaysian Ministry of Health; a private research institute, the Institut Pasteur; an international research organisation WHO's Tropical Diseases Research programme; and an international humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières. DNDi aims to develop new, improved and field-relevant drugs for neglected diseases such as leishmaniasis, human African trypanosomiasis, and Chagas disease that afflict the very poor in developing countries. It will raise awareness of the urgent need to develop drugs for these diseases and use DNDi projects to strengthen existing capacity in disease-endemic countries. Photo Credit: WHO-Roll Back Malaria | |
  Target Product Profile: Starting with patients in mind  By the time a new drug reaches a patient it has to be able to cure the disease safely, with few side-effects. To be truly effective it has also to satisfy many others criteria. These may include an attractive formulation to ensure that children comply with their treatment, or robustness suitable for transport and storage in tropical conditions. See also: | ||
 Meet Prof Jim McKerrow, Principal Investigator DNDi Prof Jim McKerrow is principal investigator of one of DNDi’s discovery projects that seeks to optimise inhibitors of the drug target cysteine protease inhibitors... DNDi’s Intellectual Property Policy puts patients first DNDi considers its output to be public goods. After all what use is a new drug if it does not reach those who most need it? Patients before patents: Global calls for a generic drug to counter Avian Flu The world is frantically preparing for a possible catastrophe brought on by the avian flu virus H5N1. The race is on to produce a hybrid vaccine virus to immunise people against the disease... |  Prof Alan Fairlamb: A tireless advocate for neglected diseases
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When elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences earlier this year, the citation for Prof Alan Fairlamb stated that he was ‘a tireless advocate for neglected diseases’. Professor of Biochemistry at the School of Life Sciences, Dundee, Prof Fairlamb was one of the 250 scientists involved in the genome sequencing of the parasites that cause sleeping sickness...Editor: Jaya Banerji - Tel: +41 22 906 9230 - Fax: +41 22 906 9231 - www.dndi.org