Scientists assess partnership to develop drugs against neglected diseases

An international workshop held at FAPESP presented research studies underway for the purpose of establishing bases for future collaboration.

By Karina Toledo

Agência FAPESP – Against a backdrop of globalization and climate change, the so-called neglected tropical diseases are fast becoming a problem no longer limited only to poor or developing countries. As pathogens and their vectors adapt and expand throughout the world, more people are entering the danger zone, and the need for new, less toxic and more effective treatments is becoming increasingly urgent.

This topic was discussed by researchers from several countries during the workshop “Frontiers in Science on Neglected Diseases,” which was held at at FAPESP headquarters on November 13-14, 2014.

Organized by FAPESP in partnership with the United Kingdom’s Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and the organizations Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), the event was designed not only to promote the exchange of information about research currently underway but also to establish a basis for future collaboration aimed at stepping up the pace of development of new medications.

According to Alejandra Palermo, the innovation manager of the RSC, nearly a year ago, the entity signed an agreement with the DNDi and MMV to support the discovery of new drugs within an open-science model, focusing primarily on malaria, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis. She says that there is interest in including Brazil in this partnership.

“When we talk about expanding our network of collaboration, we have to consider Brazil because the country has a strong chemistry community and because many of the diseases about which we are talking are endemic to Brazil. The RSC could offer access to our network of collaboration and the tools and software that facilitate the exchange of knowledge. Additionally, Brazilian researchers could have the opportunity to work with the guidance and partnership of the DNDi and MMV, which are non-profit organizations focused on developing drugs that would be accessible to the world’s poorest,” Palermo said.

During the event’s opening session, the DNDi’s Director of Discoveries and Pre-clinical Development, Robert Don, explained that the organization is a public-private partnership established 11 years ago that currently has a network of 130 partners in R&D all over the world.

“Our headquarters are in Geneva [Switzerland], but we have regional offices in several locations. We established partnerships with researchers at the local and international levels and put them together to work on developing new products for neglected diseases,” Don said.

Up to this point, the entity has made two new treatments available for malaria, in addition to one treatment for sleeping sickness (African trypanosomiasis), one treatment for visceral leishmaniasis, one combination of drugs to fight a visceral leishmaniasis specific to Asia, and one treatment for Chagas disease whose dose has been adapted for pediatric use. Twelve other chemical compounds are in the development phase.

The DNDi also has a collaboration program with the University of Campinas (Unicamp), called the Lead Optimization Latin America (LOLA) project, which aims to identify and enhance chemical compounds that are primarily used in the fight against Chagas disease and leishmaniasis.

Paul Willis, a director at MMV, said that the organization, also headquartered in Switzerland, receives donations from governments, companies and foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust to conduct research that may be carried out in partnership with universities or industry.

“Our mission is to save lives by developing new drugs to treat malaria. We do this by discovering compounds, developing medicines and making them accessible to the people who need them. We have already worked with more than 300 partners all over the world,” he said.

“This meeting is extremely important for addressing the problem of malaria. I believe that with the current science in Brazil, access to the parasites, political will, support and financing, together, we can make a huge contribution to fighting malaria,” said Jeremy Burrows, Vice President and Head of MMV’s Drug Discovery department.

Internationalization

During the meeting’s opening session, FAPESP Scientific Director Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz said that the event is aligned with the Foundation’s strategy of promoting connections between researchers from São Paulo and those in other parts of the world.

“We want to learn about the opportunities in this field, and sometime in the future, we will be able to consider having a joint program with organizations that are here to fund research related to neglected diseases,” he said.

According to Walter Colli, an assistant coordinator of the FAPESP Area Panel on Life Sciences and one of the event’s organizers, British researchers have considerable experience in developing chemical substances that attack parasites, whereas Brazilian groups have extensive knowledge about the basic mechanisms of operation of such parasites.

“Groups from Brazil, in which I include myself, try to study how the parasites work with the hope that, by understanding their metabolism, we can design a more effective drug to fight them. However, we never quite get there. They [international groups] are getting there, so we have to absorb this knowledge,” said Colli, who is also a professor at the University of São Paulo (USP).

During his presentation, British chemist Simon Campbell – a member of MMV and the RSC – emphasized that the process of developing new drugs is extremely multidisciplinary, and he defended the need to group specialists from fields such as synthetic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, biology, and translational medicine in a single location. According to him, we need to avoid the temptation to create virtual collaborative networks because they would ensure that the work and the knowledge remain separate.

“There are great opportunities for Brazil in the field of neglected diseases. There is a huge scientific community, with knowledge about the diseases, the patients and the challenges. The country has funding and good laboratories as well. We need to invest in the development of synthetic and medicinal chemistry to translate the knowledge of biology into new drugs. Academicians who have no experience in developing drugs could learn through partnerships with entities such as MMV,” he said.

“In today’s world, anyone can become infected by any disease. We are not just treating patients in far-off lands, but patients in our own society who have been exposed. We need more effective drugs and, more importantly, drugs with fewer side effects because otherwise, there will be no treatment adherence,” he said.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), neglected tropical diseases affect more than 1 billion people worldwide, constitute an important cause of mortality and morbidity, and represent 10.5% of the global disease burden. Of the 17 neglected diseases listed by the WHO, 14 are present in Brazil.