Bayer To Provide Emodepside For DNDi To Treat River Blindness

Bayer HealthCare has partnered with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a not-for-profit R&D organization working on treatments for neglected diseases. The agreement, announced in a press release, is a supply contract for Bayer to provide the active ingredient, emodepside, for DNDi to develop a new oral treatment for river blindness (onchocerciasis), caused by a filarial worm. Dr. Bernard Pécoul, Executive Director of DNDi, said, “Through our collaboration with Bayer on the development of emodepside, we hope to bring a new, safe, short-course, field-adapted treatment to patients and offer a new public health approach for countries long affected by this disease.”

Bayer and DNDi Agreement

Emodepside is licensed from Astellas, which has granted Bayer the right to develop emodepside for patients with river blindness. Dr. Olivier Brandicourt, Chairman of the Board of Bayer HealthCare, stated that the agreement with DNDi fits with its social engagement strategy, which includes investigations for treatments in Chagas disease and African sleeping sickness.

DNDi has agreed to conduct preclinical and clinical development activities and Bayer will be responsible for the development, manufacturing, registration, and supply of emodepside. The agreement includes flexibility for the partners to collaborate with third parties in case one of the parties withdraws from the deal. Both parties have agreed to keep development and supply costs as low as possible to ensure affordability in the current 31 countries affected by river blindness.

Emodepside

Emodepside is a semi-synthetic product derived from a fungus that lives on the leaves of Camellia japonica plant. Emodepside was originally developed as an agent for veterinary use. Pre-clinical studies showed efficacy in killing adult worms in humans, giving the drug new life as a macrofilaricidal drug. Current treatments are microfilaricidal as they kill only young worms, while emodepside kills adult worms. The current treatments need to be repeated at bi-yearly or yearly intervals for many years.

River Blindness

River blindness (onchocerciasis) is endemic to Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Americas. DNDi estimates that 25 million people worldwide suffer from the disease and almost 300,000 people are blind. Adult worms can live up to 15 years and the female worm produces millions of microfilariae. Co-infection with Loa loa (African eye worm) causes even higher levels of microfilariae in the blood.