GHIT Fund commits $10.7 million for malaria, TB, leishmaniasis, dengue research

The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund is investing $10.7 million in the product development pipeline for new interventions against malaria, tuberculosis, leishmaniosis and dengue, according to a press release.

“The projects come at a crucial time for all four diseases: new drugs and vaccines for TB and malaria are desperately needed to fight rising resistance to existing therapies,” the release said. “Meanwhile, disease experts fear the chaos caused by the war in Syria and neighboring Iraq could greatly intensify infections with leishmaniasis, a dangerous and potentially deadly disease spread by sandflies.”

To expand its efforts, the Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund collaborated with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop the Grand Challenges Targeted Research Platform initiative. Through the initiative, GHIT is awarding Takeda Pharmaceutical, Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and the University of Melbourne almost $300,000 to develop assays that will allow researchers to better understand drug resistance in parasites. The funds will support research assessing drugs currently used in anticancer treatments that may be capable of hindering proteasome activity within the cells of malaria parasites, which could restore the effectiveness of artemisinin combination therapies to treat malaria.

“These projects are early stage, but build on Takeda’s work with proteasome inhibitors,” Timothy Wells, PhD, chief scientific officer at MMV, said in the release. “Combining proteasome expertise with malaria expertise represents a very innovative approach.”

Hit-to-Lead Platform

Additional funds totaling $3.5 million will be distributed through GHIT’s Hit-to-Lead Platform program to support:

a partnership between Eisai Co. and MMV that will identify compounds with potential activity against several stages of malaria, including liver, blood and gametocyte stages; and
a partnership between Daiichi Sankyo and the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) that will evaluate the role of drug-like molecules against TB.

Further research investigating new drug candidates against malaria conducted by Takeda and MMV and through another collaboration between Shionogi, the Japan Anti-Tuberculosis Association and the TB Alliance, will be co-funded by the Wellcome Trust foundation.

Product Development Platform

To accelerate vaccine and drug development efforts, GHIT’s Product Development Platform is funding research for leishmaniasis, dengue and TB vaccines, along with two malaria drug candidates, according to the release. Funding totaling $5.9 million will benefit:

preclinical trials assessing the safety and efficacy of two vaccine candidates for cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis conducted by researchers at The Ohio State University, Nagasaki University, McGill University and the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research;
the development of a clinical grade formulation and preclinical testing of a dengue vaccine candidate for all four virus serotypes, conducted by the European Vaccine Initiative, Nagasaki University and the Institute Pasteur;
a randomized clinical trial conducted by researchers at Dartmouth College, Tanzania’s Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences and Tokyo Medical and Dental University that will evaluate the safety and efficacy of the booster TB vaccine DAR-901 in adolescents;
preclinical research of an alternative malaria drug candidate conducted by researchers from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the University of Liverpool, and Eisai; and
phase 2 clinical trials that were launched earlier this year assessing a malaria drug developed by MMV and Takeda.

Finally, GHIT is committing almost $1 million for research on malaria biomarkers that will drive the development of new diagnostic tools that will be conducted by researchers at Australia’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Japan’s Ehime University, Switzerland’s Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics and the Japanese biotech firm CellFree Sciences.