Advinus, DNDi to link up on Kala Azar drug

Bangalore, Oct 11 (UNI) Advinus Therapeutics (P) Ltd and Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a not-for-profit research and development organisation based in Geneva, announced a collaboration today for discovery and development of novel therapies for 'visceral leishmaniasis' (Kala Azar), a fatal disease affecting people in developing countries, including India.

The collaboration, which had been agreed upon for an initial period of five years and may be extended if needed, would be the first-of-its-kind in India to discover and develop novel therapies for this neglected disease, according to a release by Advinus.

The collaboration has been formed to specifically address unmet patient needs as current treatments had significant drawbacks.

Uniting complementary capabilities in Europe and India, the collaboration would bring together expertise in chemistry, biology, screening and pre-formulation and help to strengthen capacity in VL-endemic countries through training and networking.

The goal of the project was to progress molecules proven to be safe and active against VL parasites in early-stage screening research through the first steps of regulatory safety assessment in the preclinical phase.

UNI