Drug discovery for neglected diseases: View of a public-private partnership

Abstract

In answer to the lack of modern and effective drugs for disease such as human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT; sleeping sickness) and Chagas' disease which present no financial viability for the pharmaceutical industry new models of drug discovery have been developed. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) or product development partnerships (PDPs) aim to combine the skills and research capacity of academia, the pharmaceutical industry and contract researchers to create focused research consortia which address all aspects of drug discovery. These consortiae emulate the project teams within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and include identification and screening of libraries, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmacodynamics. The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) has adopted a model closely related to that of a virtual biotechnology company for identifying and optimizing drug leads. This chapter outlines the application of this model to the development of drug candidates for the kinetoplastid infections of HAT, Chagas’ disease, and leishmaniasis.

Citation

P. M., Selzer (Ed), Antiparasitic Antibacterial Drug Discovery, Chapter 3, 33-43, Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 9783527323272(print), ISBN: 9783527626816 (online)[doi: 10.1002/9783527626816]

Drug discovery for neglected diseases: View of a public-private partnership

Published 1 January 2009