New drug for river blindness starts trial; older drug still going strong

A clinical trial to assess the safety and efficacy of moxidectin for treatment of onchocerciasis is set to begin, according to Wyeth and the World Health Organization, who are funding the trial. At the same time, investigators say that Merck’s drug Mectizan (ivermectin) has been effective in a 17-year-old program against the same disease.

A Wyeth press release noted that the clinical trial of moxidectin is the culmination of a 3-year cooperative effort to develop an oral formula for the drug. The phase 2 trial will begin at the WHO’s Onchocerciasis Chemotherapy Research Centre in Hohoe, Ghana. Wyeth will be responsible for providing clinical supplies and resources for data management and analysis.

If the new drug is successful, it will be a possible alternative to ivermectin, which Merck has donated for the past 17 years to a program for the prevention of river blindness. A recent review of that program indicated that the number of annual ivermectin treatments approved through community-based, mass treatment grew from 255,000 in 1988 to nearly 50 million in 2002. A projected 90 million people would need treatment by 2010, the review concluded. Merck and the WHO jointly conducted 7 years of clinical trials before establishing the Mectizan Donation Program, according to a press release from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Four studies evaluating the ivermectin program are published in the current issue of Tropical Medicine and International Health, according to the press release.