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Nobel winners back global appeal
for research into neglected diseases |
London / AFP
06/10/2005
Fifteen Nobel laureates on Wednesday helped launch a global campaign
to demand three billion dollars to fund new research into "neglected
diseases" ranging from AIDS to leishmaniasis that each day claim
35,000 lives.
The advocacy effort turned the spotlight on half a dozen diseases
that hit poor countries in particular and for which new drugs, tests
and vaccines are urgently needed.
It said that three billion dollars a year were needed for research
in these diseases, a drop in the ocean compared with the more than
106 billion dollars annually spent on health research around the world.
The list of research "orphans" is headed by AIDS, malaria
and tuberculosis (TB).
These three are well-known diseases whose cause has been taken up
by the Global Fund, which focuses however on distributing the drugs
to combat them rather than on researching new ones.
In addition, most of the existing treatments are inadequate or at
risk of drug resistance as the pathogen mutates. And they sometimes
require a complex regimen of pill-taking.
Another problem is that vaccine research into all three diseases is
meagre, given the poor incentive for pharmaceutical giants to get
involved in prevention rather than treatment.
Other neglected diseases named by the campaign are sleeping sickness,
leishmaniasis and chagas disease, which are rampant in poor tropical
countries of Africa or Latin America.
The campaign is spearheaded by a Geneva group, Drugs for Neglected
Diseases Initiative (DNDi).
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