A group supplying drugs to the poor in developing nations signed an agreement Friday in Tokyo with the Kitasato Institute to conduct a joint project to develop a cure for sleeping sickness, currently spreading across Africa.
It is the first collaboration with a Japanese organization for the Geneva-based Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative.
A group of doctors set up DNDi in 2003 to bring effective and affordable drugs to the extremely poor suffering from neglected diseases, including malaria. The group works with drug makers and medical institutions around the world.
"What we are looking for are the sort of drugs which are easy to deliver to patients, are nontoxic and are safe," Simon Croft, research and development director at DNDi, told a news conference in Tokyo.
It is estimated that 500,000 people in Africa are infected with human African trypanosomiasis annually and 50,000 patients die from the sleeping sickness each year, according to Croft. A person infected with the disease falls into a coma and if untreated, eventually dies.
Under the agreement, the medical institute in Tokyo's Minato Ward will test the samples it has of 300 to 400 natural substances, including antibiotics and microbial metabolic substances, to see if any of them will counter the parasite that causes the disease.