Bayer and DNDi to develop oral treatment for human river blindness
German healthcare giant will provide active ingredient emodepside which shows potential as a macrofilaricidal drug
Bayer and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) have agreed to work together on the development of a new oral drug to treat river blindness.
The German healthcare giant will provide the active ingredient emodepside to support Switzerland-based DNDi in its effort to develop the treatment for this neglected tropical disease, which is caused by a filarial worm.
Emodepside originates from the Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas and has been developed by Bayer HealthCare’s Animal Health division for veterinary use. The compound has been found to be effective in killing adult worms in pre-clinical studies, thus showing potential as a new ‘macrofilaricidal’ drug for the treatment of patients with river blindness. Astellas has granted Bayer the rights to develop emodepside along these lines.
We hope to bring a new, safe, short-course, field-adapted treatment to patients
Large-scale programmes for the treatment and control of filarial diseases, such as river blindness, have been in place for more than 20 years, based on administering drugs to entire populations. While these mass drug administration (MDA) programmes have seen considerable successes, treatments must be repeated at regular intervals of every six or 12 months for up to 17 years to cover the life span of adult worms. This is primarily due to the fact that current treatments are ‘microfilaricidal’ i.e. they kill only the young worms. A macrofilaricide such as emodepside, by killing adult worms, could dramatically reduce treatment time of MDAs and could be used in areas and circumstances where the use of microfilaricidal drugs is limited.
'We need to build on the experience and progress of the past 20 years and give new impetus to research and development for new health tools to accelerate the elimination of river blindness in targeted countries of Africa,' explained Bernard Pécoul, Executive Director of DNDi.
'Through our collaboration with Bayer on the development of emodepside, we hope to bring a new, safe, short-course, field-adapted treatment to patients and offer a new public health approach for countries long affected by this disease.'
Within the framework of the agreement, DNDi will be responsible for the preclinical and clinical development of emodepside and Bayer for the pharmaceutical development, manufacturing, registration and supply of the drug.