Fexinidazole for T.b. rhodesiense

Fexinidazole for T.b. rhodesiense Sleeping sickness

Saving lives through new sleeping sickness treatments

Project start: September 2018

 

DNDi’s long-term goal for sleeping sickness is to develop and register two new drugs that are effective against both stage one and stage two of the disease, also known as human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), and both subspecies of the parasite, Trypanosoma brucei gambiense and Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense.

Fexinidazole, the first all-oral drug for sleeping sickness developed in clinical trials led by DNDi and added to the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines in July 2019, is currently only indicated as a treatment for gambiense sleeping sickness, the most common form of the disease. The 10-day once-a-day treatment can be taken at home.

To provide clinical data to assess the safety and efficacy of treating both stages of rhodesiense sleeping sickness with fexinidazole, we have joined with partners to form the HAT-r-ACC consortium. The consortium is working on a five-year study in Uganda and Malawi, which together account for 88 % of cases globally. The study aims to support WHO control and elimination efforts in East Africa by providing evidence for the potential of a new and easier to administer oral drug.

Better treatments for rhodesiense sleeping sickness are urgently needed: the only treatment available for stage two rhodesiense sleeping sickness is melarsoprol, a toxic arsenic drug dating from the 1940s that kills up to 5% of patients it is meant to cure. While the treatment option for stage one, suramin, is less toxic, it is difficult to administer, requiring five intravenous injections given every seven days for a month. Without prompt diagnosis and treatment, sleeping sickness is usually fatal. Rhodesiense sleeping sickness progresses more rapidly than gambiense sleeping sickness, causing death within months.

The consortium also aims to support national sleeping sickness control programmes in Malawi and Uganda to raise awareness of rhodesiense sleeping sickness among affected communities and increase early detection of cases.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This project is part of the EDCTP2 programme, which is supported by the European Union.

 

 

Last updated: August 2019