January 30th marked an unprecedented level of cooperation between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, several top pharmaceutical companies, governments and other big players in the public health field towards combating and attempting to eliminate 10 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by the end of the decade. These NTDs affect about 1.4 billion people a year and primarily those in developing countries and LDCs.
“Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases“, which was held in London yesterday, marked several sizable contributions and promises made towards the cause of fighting these diseases through drug distribution, drug development and capacity building. Aside from signing the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases, they’ve pledged more than USD785 million to support these goals. The Gates foundation alone has pledged USD 363million over 5 years to support NTD production and operational research. To see what different participants have committed to, click here.
Encouragingly, some of the pharmaceutical companies are working together to develop new drugs for NTDs. 11 Pharmaceuticals (including Abbott, Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, etc) have agreed to open out their compound libraries to the public-private partnership DNDi (Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative). This allows them to look into the previous research by the sharing R&D labs (which were not commercialized) as well as in a way, pressurizes pharmaceutical companies to maintain a standard of commitment towards these causes. Andrew Witty, who has been responsible for several of the public health initiatives that GSK has involved itself in, quoted an African saying, “If you want to travel fast, travel alone – but if you want to travel far, travel in a group”. Indeed, there is strength in numbers and these efforts to eradicate NTDs must be applauded.
The targets include the eradication of Guinea worm disease, and progress towards the 2020 goal of eliminating lymphatic filariasis, blinding trachoma, sleeping sickness and leprosy, and control of soil-transmitted helminthes, schistosomiasis, river blindness, Chagas disease and visceral leishmaniasis. The organizers have put together a great infographic representation of the problem and the plan over here.
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| Graph available here |
