New survey indicates need to draw attention to neglected tropical diseases

Although neglected diseases account for 11% of the global disease burden, they are targeted by only a small proportion of new drugs developed each year.

Between January 2012 and September 2018, a total of 256 new drugs were put on the market, but only eight (3.1%) were designed to treat neglected diseases. This value exceeds the proportion of 1.1% for 1975-99, but is below the 4.3% mark recorded for 2000-11.

The term "neglected diseases" refers to malaria, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis and 20 neglected tropical diseases recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), such as dengue fever, chikungunya, Chagas and leishmaniasis, among others.

An up-to-date survey on drugs and vaccines for neglected diseases has been published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Signed by two researchers affiliated with the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil, it shows that there is still much to be done, especially with regard to neglected tropical diseases.

None of the new chemical entities approved between 2012 and 2018 targeted NTDs, although two targeted malaria and tuberculosis. The new TB drugs (bedaquiline), with a new mechanism of action, and Plasmodium vivax malaria (tafenoquine) are the first innovations in the treatment of their respective targets over the 40 years. and last 60 years, respectively.

"The other six products registered between 2012 and 2018 for this group of diseases are drugs, biologics or new formulations that are recycled.Reproduced drugs, for example, have been used to treat other diseases and have been approved. for new clinical uses.Call a new chemical entity, result of innovation and thus containing no active molecule previously approved for clinical use ", said Adriano Andricopulo, professor at the São Carlos Institute of Physics of the University of São Paulo (IFSC-USP) and authors of the article.

The other author is Leonardo L. G. Ferreira, who has received a PhD scholarship and a postdoctoral fellowship from FAPESP.

The two scientists are also affiliated with the Center for Research and Innovation in Biodiversity and Drug Discovery (CIBFar), one of the research, innovation and dissemination centers (INCDs) funded by the FAPESP.

The WHO is committed to eliminating the epidemics of MTN by 2030. In addition, the 2012 London Declaration on NTDs has established action plans to control, eliminate, or eradicate eradicate ten NTDs by 2020.

"By integrating advanced science and technology, drug research and development for neglected diseases has made significant progress, but there is still a deep gap between the disease burden and the development of therapeutic badets for these diseases." , write the authors.

However, they note that the list of new approved chemical entities will expand in 2019 with the development of fexinidazole, the most advanced oral drug against human African trypanosomiasis. "The drug is currently being tested for Chagas disease," said Andricopulo.

Andricopulo is the principal investigator of one of five proposals approved as part of an appeal launched by FAPESP in the UK with the British Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Newton Fund for NTD Joint Center Partnerships. Over the next three years, groups led by Andricopulo and Kevin David Read of the Drug Discovery Unit at the University of Dundee (DDU) in Scotland will study the use of bioactive natural products in the discovery of new drugs to treat leishmaniasis and Chagas syndrome.