July/August 2022 • PharmaTimes Magazine • 9
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Novartis invests $250m in malaria elimination commitment
Novartis has endorsed the ‘Kigali Declaration’ on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by announcing a five-year financial commitment of $250m.
The Kigali Summit on Malaria and NTDs ran alongside the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting.
Novartis’ investment prioritises malaria – a disease it has been focused on eliminating for many years. It also includes a $100m investment to advance the research and development of its neglected tropical disease programme, concentrating on novel drug candidates for four diseases.
In partnership with Wellcome, the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases is working to discover novel anti-parasitic therapies for Chagas disease. Furthermore, the company is collaborating with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative to jointly develop LXE408 for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis. It will also be developing therapies for dengue fever and parasitic diarrhoea – major causes of mortality among young children in developing countries.
“Over the past decade, great progress has been made against NTDs, but there is still a lot more work to be done. Novartis will continue progressing our long-standing commitment to helping realise a world free of NTDs,” explained Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis.
Around the world, 1.7 billion people suffer from NTDs, which are prevalent in tropical areas and mostly affect impoverished communities, causing devastating health, social and economic consequences.
Westminster Drug Project and Gilead Sciences take on hepatitis C
Westminster Drug Project will resume its partnership with Gilead Sciences as part of an ongoing effort to eliminate the hepatitis C virus (HCV) from drug and alcohol services.
WDP initially received a Gilead grant in December 2019 to help increase its HCV testing and treatment uptake, enhance its data recording and to apply the ‘Capital Card’ to its HCV pathway. The addition of the Capital Card meant service users could earn points by engaging in HCV testing and treatment appointments and spend their points on positive activities and products in their local community.
Alongside the NHS and Gilead jointly delivered training to WDP teams, these interventions delivered a 114% increase in blood-borne virus testing uptake in WDP’s adult community services between September and December 2020, compared to the same four-month period the previous year, despite lockdown and other COVID-19-related protections.
William McCully, director, Patient Access to Care at Gilead Sciences, explained: “We are delighted to partner with WDP to deliver on the ambition to eliminate HCV in drug treatment services in England by the end of 2023 and look forward to supporting WDP’s Hep C Coordinator, the wider WDP team and the NHS to drive testing, diagnosis and linkage to care.”
HOT & NOT
Amref Health Africa and AstraZeneca – in collaboration with the Ministry of Health in Kenya – are launching a fleet of mobile vaccination clinics in an effort to protect last-mile communities from the pandemic.
Ten movable clinics will bring COVID-19 vaccines and other health services into hard-to-reach communities across Kenya, increasing vaccine access and general uptake.
As of June 2022, only 31.4% of the adult population in Kenya were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while Africa’s average vaccination rate is 17.7%, lagging behind other world regions.
The first ever treatment for broken heart syndrome – also known as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy – is to be trialled by researchers at the University of Aberdeen.
Scientists will trial a programme of exercise conditioning and psychological therapy for people who have been diagnosed with the condition following a £300,000 grant from the British Heart Foundation.
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy affects around 5,000 people in the UK each year, with at least 7% of all of heart attacks diagnosed as broken heart syndrome.
Scancell, a company that specialises in treating cancer and infectious diseases, has announced the enrolment and treatment of the first patient in its multicentre Modi-1 clinical trial at Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital.
The study is a first-in-human clinical trial in patients with triple negative breast, ovarian, head and neck, and renal cancer.
Although monkeypox is spreading and more countries have been impacted the current threat to global public health is negligible. Pharma companies remain poised for a greater outbreak but, at the moment, numbers are manageable according to WHO’s latest data.
A total of 2,746 worldwide cases of monkeypox have been identified through a variety of healthcare mechanisms up to June 2022.
The individuals come from a combination of 29 countries and areas throughout the European region.
NICE has announced its decision to reject Fampyra – also known as fampridine – for use in England. The drug was developed by Acorda Therapeutics and is manufactured by Elan Corporation.
The treatment can significantly improve walking ability and quality of life for people with multiple sclerosis, but will not be used across the NHS in England.
The controversial decision arrives in spite of the fact that the drug is already approved for use in neighbouring Scotland and Wales. It is also available widely in the US.
COVID-19 infections in the UK recently rose by 32% in a single week during June 2022, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics.
Coronavirus figures showed 2.3m infections compared to 1.7m the week before – the highest estimate for total infections since late April.
Two sub-variants of Omicron – BA.4 and BA.5 – are now driving new infections in the UK and globally.
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