DNDi, pharmas form tropical disease consortium

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and four pharmas launched the Neglected Tropical Diseases Drug Discovery Booster consortium to accelerate the discovery of new treatments for leishmaniasis and Chagas disease. The consortium includes Eisai Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4523), Shionogi & Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4507), Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4502) and AstraZeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NYSE:AZN).

The DNDi will provide its four partners with an initial "seed" compound against Leishmania or Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasites that cause leishmaniasis and Chagas disease, respectively. The companies will search their own compound libraries for similar molecules and send the most promising candidates to the DNDi, which then will screen them for efficacy. It will choose new seed compounds and repeat the process, seeking better molecules. ...