The Hindu Business Line : Now, an initiative to develop drugs for neglected diseases

IT is a tall task to get drug companies into a long-term research commitment on neglected diseases that are "too poor to cure," said Dr Yves Champey, Chairperson with Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a non-profit drug development organisation.

Drug companies are willing to look at a specific aspect of a disease, but they do not want to get into long-term research on kala azar, for instance.

The reason is that there is no commercial interest, added Dr Champey, formerly a Research and Development Executive and Senior Vice-President at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer.

To fix this problem, DNDi is trying to forge a research-driven consortium of public health institutions across different countries. And for making pharma companies bite the bait, DNDi hopes its recent deal with Sanofi-Aventis will be a precedent of sorts.

Research-oriented DNDi is founded by the humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in collaboration with global public sector institutions and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

In India, it has identified kala azar, malaria and tuberculosis (TB) as neglected diseases. Globally, another form of kala azar, sleeping sickness and chagas (a parasitic-disease) have been singled-out.

Help from Sanofi-Aventis: Sanofi-Aventis would help commercialise DNDi-supported research on a medicine that combines two proven malarial drugs.

The fixed-dose-combination drug, combining artesunate and amodiaquine, will be used to treat drug-resistant malaria.

The company will get its volumes by selling the drug, which will be available by 2006, to public procurement systems of governments and multilateral agencies such as the WHO at cost.

It will cost $1 (Rs 44) per adult and the paediatric version will cost $0.5.

The present cost is about $2 per patient, he said. Interestingly, the FDC will not be patented and DNDi is talking to Indian drug companies for production in the local market. About 3 per cent of Sanofi's sales would go to DNDi to lessen the cost of these FDC drugs, he added.

Privatisation and neglect: Dr Amit Sen Gupta of the People's Health Movement said that the health system in India is the fourth most privatised in the world and hence, diseases get neglected.

Despite having first and second line TB drugs, there are half a million TB deaths in India every year, he said.

Global drug companies are estimated to spend about $50 billion annually on research.

If companies put even 0.1 per cent of their research spend into neglected diseases, the kitty would be large enough to deal with the problem, Dr Champey said.

Despite all the limitations, drugs are important treatment tools, he added.

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