How can new drugs for NTDs be developed?
The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) was created in
response to the frustration of clinicians and the desperation of
patients faced with medicines that were ineffective, unsafe,
unavailable, unaffordable, or that had never been developed at all. DNDi
embraces the power of innovation, open science, partnerships, and
advocacy to find solutions to a great injustice: the lack of medicines
for life-threatening diseases that disproportionately impact poor and
marginalized people.38 Through harnessing scientific
advances in drug discovery, technologies to improve the efficiency and
accelerate the pace of the R&D process, including artificial
intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery tools, novel imaging,
diagnostic, and clinical trial design and operations technologies, and
AI-driven data analysis are being employed. Evaluation of a range of
strategies and compounds, including fast-evolving techniques such as the
use of host-targeted therapies or development of specific monoclonal
antibodies alongside repurposing of older agents aims to increase the
therapeutic repertoire available for evaluation in clinical trials.
Furthermore, efforts to develop drugs for NTDs must involve engaging
members of the affected communities, and the control arms of randomized
controlled trials of new drugs must at least include the existing
national standard of care. Similar models have been used in partnerships
such as the Medicines for Malaria Venture, Gavi (the vaccine alliance)
and the COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition.