Efficacy and safety of ravidasvir plus sofosbuvir in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection without cirrhosis or with compensated cirrhosis (STORM-C-1): interim analysis of a two-stage, open-label, multicentre, single arm, phase 2/3 trial.

Background: In low-income and middle-income countries, affordable direct-acting antivirals are urgently needed to treat hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The combination of ravidasvir, a pangenotypic non-structural protein 5A (NS5A) inhibitor, and sofosbuvir has shown efficacy and safety in patients with chronic HCV genotype 4 infection. STORM-C-1 trial aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of ravidasvir plus sofosbuvir in a diverse population of adults chronically infected with HCV.

Innovation is vital for elimination of neglected diseases in South Asia.

Despite some success in reducing the substantial mortality many challenges remain, say

Recent Development of Visceral Leishmaniasis Treatments: Successes, Pitfalls, and Perspectives.

Research in visceral leishmaniasis in the last decade has been focused on how better to use the existing medicines as monotherapy or in combination. Systematic research by geographical regions has shown that a universal treatment is far from today's reality. Substantial progress has been made in the elimination of kala-azar in South Asia, with a clear strategy on first- and second-line therapy options of single-dose liposomal amphotericin B and a combination of paromomycin and miltefosine, respectively, among other interventions.

Eliminating the Neglected Tropical Diseases: Translational Science and New Technologies.

Today, the World Health Organization recognizes 17 major parasitic and related infections as the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Despite recent gains in the understanding of the nature and prevalence of NTDs, as well as successes in recent scaled-up preventive chemotherapy strategies and other health interventions, the NTDs continue to rank among the world's greatest global health problems. For virtually all of the NTDs (including those slated for elimination under the auspices of a 2012 London Declaration for NTDs and a 2013 World Health Assembly resolution [WHA 66.

A global biomedical R&D fund and mechanism for innovations of public health importance.

Bernard Pécoul and colleagues call for the establishment of a global biomedical R&D fund as a key priority of the G7 summit in June 2015.

The drug and vaccine landscape for neglected diseases (2000-11): a systematic assessment.

Background: In 1975-99, only 1·1% of new therapeutic products had been developed for neglected diseases. Since then, several public and private initiatives have attempted to mitigate this imbalance. We analysed the research and development pipeline of drugs and vaccines for neglected diseases from 2000 to 2011.

Ask the experts.

The Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases partners, including the US, UK, UAE and other national governments, along with 13 pharmaceutical industry businesses, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other neglected tropical disease-endemic countries, announced that they are to join together to drive research and innovation for the treatment of neglected tropical diseases. The collaboration will see neglected tropical disease-endemic countries work alongside these organizations with the goal of fueling R&D of treatments for ten neglected tropical diseases in support of WHO's 2020 goals. Isaac Bruce, Commissioning Editor, spoke to four experts in the field from academia, not-for-profit organizations and the pharmaceutical industry, and asked their opinions on the partnerships announced and what the status of neglected tropical disease research will be at the end of this decade.

Innovative public-private partnerships to maximize the delivery of anti-malarial medicines: lessons learned from the ASAQ Winthrop experience.

Background: This case study describes how a public-private partnership initiated to develop a new anti-malarial combination, ASAQ Winthrop, has evolved over time to address issues posed by its effective deployment in the field.

Case Description: In 2002, DNDi created the FACT project to develop two fixed-dose combinations, artesunate-amodiaquine and artesunate-mefloquine, to meet the WHO anti-malarial treatment recommendations and international regulatory agencies approval standards. In 2002, Sanofi-Aventis had started a development programme for a fixed-dose combination of artesunate and amodiaquine, to replace its co-blister combination.

Registering new drugs for low-income countries: the African challenge.

Mary Moran and colleagues discuss the best strategies for African regulators to be supported in their efforts to evaluate and approve drugs for their own populations.

Fexinidazole--a new oral nitroimidazole drug candidate entering clinical development for the treatment of sleeping sickness.

Background: Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as sleeping sickness, is a fatal parasitic disease caused by trypanosomes. Current treatment options for HAT are scarce, toxic, no longer effective, or very difficult to administer, in particular for the advanced, fatal stage of the disease (stage 2, chronic HAT). New safe, effective and easy-to-use treatments are urgently needed.

Anti-malarial market and policy surveys in sub-Saharan Africa.

At a recent meeting (Sept 18, 2009) in which reasons for the limited access to artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) in sub-Saharan Africa were discussed, policy and market surveys on anti-malarial drug availability and accessibility in Burundi and Sierra Leone were presented in a highly interactive brainstorming session among key stakeholders across private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. The surveys, the conduct of which directly involved the national malaria control programme managers of the two countries, provides the groundwork for evidence-based policy implementation. The results of the surveys could be extrapolated to other countries with similar socio-demographic and malaria profiles.

Interview with Dr Bernard Pécoul, Executive Director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative.

A significant number of product-development partnerships have arisen in the past 10 years to tackle diseases that mainly affect developing countries. With their coherent research and development leadership, they have become key players in identifying gaps and overcoming bottlenecks in order to deliver medicines to those who need them most in the developing world. Dr Bernard Pécoul is the Executive Director of one such partnership, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi).