


Human African TrypanosomiasisHuman African Trypanosomiasis


Sleeping sickness or Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) is endemic in 36 African countries and around 21 million people are at medium to high risk of being infected. HAT is transmitted by the tsetse fly and is fatal without treatment. Up until 2009, existing treatments for stage 2 of the disease were toxic or difficult to administer. In 2009, DNDi and its partners launched the first new treatment for HAT in 25 years. Leishmaniasis occurs in 98 countries with 350 million people living at risk worldwide. The parasite that leads to infection is called Leishmania and transmitted by sandflies. Leishmaniasis is a poverty-associated disease with several different forms; visceral leismaniasis, which is fatal without treatment, and cutaneous leshmaniasis are the most common. Existing treatments are difficult to administer, toxic, and costly. Drug resistance is also an increasing problem.


Chagas Disease

Paediatric HIVPaediatric HIV

Chagas disease is endemic in 21 countries across Latin America and kills more people in the region than any other parasite-borne disease, including malaria. In total, 70 million people are at risk worldwide and patient numbers are growing in non-endemic countries such as the United States, Australia, and Europe. The disease is transmitted by an insect known as the “kissing bug” and, without treatment, is potentially fatal. Existing treatments have an unsatisfactory cure rate and can have toxic side effects.


There are currently 36.9 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. This figure includes 2.6 million children below 15 years of age, the overwhelming majority of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. Infants acquire the virus before, during, or after birth, and without access to treatment half of them will die before their second birthday.

Filarial DiseasesFilarial Diseases


Filarial diseases, onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis) inflict the heaviest socioeconomic burden of all the neglected tropical diseases and affect millions in poverty-stricken areas. However current treatments target the juvenile worm (microfilariae) and need to be repeated for 5 years in the case of lymphatic filariasis, and for 12-15 years in the case of onchocerciasis. There is an unmet medical need for a drug that can kill the adult worms (macrofilaricide). Mycetoma is characterized by devastating deformities, disability, and high morbidity. It causes stigma and has a serious negative socio-economic impact on those affected. The exact route of infection is unknown. While Mycetoma is endemic in many tropical and subtropical regions, there is only scant data on incidence and prevalence. Treatment requires prolonged courses of ineffective, prohibitively expensive antifungals which have serious side effects, followed by extensive and often destructive surgery (amputation).


Hepatitis C virusHepatitis C


About 130-150 million people are living with chronic Hepatitis C infection (HCV), which causes inflammatory liver disease. HCV exists in six genotypes and most global research and development efforts are focused on genotypes prevalent in high-income countries, neglecting others which infect the majority (85%) of patients in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Competition between companies has hindered the development of optimal pan-genotypic combinations essential for public health use. The newest drugs, Direct Acting Antivirals are very expensive and nearly half of the world’s HCV patients live in LMICs excluded from current licensing agreements. Malaria kills one child every 1 minute in sub-Saharan Africa and is the leading parasitic cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. 3.3 billion people are at risk and while effective treatments exist, they have important limitations, including widespread drug resistance. DNDi and its partners have developed two inexpensive, efficacious, field-adapted treatments.

DNDi Project PortfolioProject Portfolio

DNDi‘s R&D portfolio includes projects from discovery through to post-registration phases. To date, DNDi and its partners have made 6 new treatments available.

See Portfolio

[1] Pedrique et al. The drug and vaccine landscape for neglected diseases (2000-2011): a systematic assessment The Lancet 2013; 1(6) e371–e379