Discovery and Development of Drug Candidates for Neglected Diseases. (360G-Wellcome-092340_A_10_Z)

The parasitic diseases, Leishmaniasis, African sleeping sickness and Chagas' disease, annually cause over 120,000 deaths world-wide. Despite this terrible death toll, the available drugs are generally not fit for purpose, suffering from multiple issues, such as lack of efficacy and unacceptable levels of toxicity, including death. Despite encouraging developments, significant gaps are still impeding the discovery of new treatments for these diseases. These include a general lack of validated targets, drug discovery effort, and insufficient hits and leads to counteract the normal attrition of drug discovery. We will address these gaps through a unique alliance between the university based Drug Discovery Unit and the major pharmaceutical company Pfizer. The consortium brings together Dundee's world renowned parasitology and extensive experience developing hits and leads for neglected diseases, and Pfizer's substantial later stage discovery and development expertise and infrastructure. Pfizer's extensive target-based knowledge and chemical matter will substantially strengthen our ability to sustain a portfolio of antiparasitic projects, through to the delivery of clinical development candidates with our established partner, DNDi. Science 10 Our goal is to deliver at least one credible pre-clinical candidate, together with a pipeline of hits and leads for one or more of these diseases within the 5 year programme.