Approvals for products to treat neglected diseases have steadily increased in recent years, a recent US study has revealed.
The research shows that the number of products to treat neglected diseases receiving marketing approval from regulatory agencies has grown as R&D funding for those diseases has increased.
According to the study, completed by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, the annual rate of new product approvals worldwide for neglected diseases increased from an average of 1.8 in 1975–99 to 2.6 in 2000–09.
Neglected diseases include malaria, kinetoplastids, diarrhoeal diseases, helminths (e.g. roundworm), bacterial pneumonia and meningitis, and typhoid and paratyphoid fever.
“During this past decade, a significant increase in R&D funding for neglected diseases has led to marketing approval for 26 drugs and vaccines,” said Joshua Cohen, Senior Research Fellow at Tufts CSDD and author of the study.
“While increased approvals are necessary to improve access, policy-makers need to ensure that safe, effective and easy-to-administer products are adopted by healthcare systems and providers on a consistent basis, that they are affordable, and that they reach the people who need them.”
The Tufts CSDD analysis discovered that an original study, which reported that only 16 of 1393 new drugs marketed between 1975 and 1999 targeted tropical diseases and tuberculosis, was inaccurate and a more accurate count was 33. However, this earlier study prompted increased funding for neglected diseases, from less than $100 million annually a decade ago to more than $2.5 billion annually today.
The new analysis, reported in the November/December Tufts CSDD Impact Report, also found that:
- Drugs to treat HIV/AIDS and malaria accounted for 81% of approvals during 2000–09.
- Vaccines have displaced drugs as the main products being developed for neglected diseases, accounting for 76% of all products.
- Public-private partnerships accounted for 46% of all new product development to treat neglected diseases during 2000–09, up from 15% in the 1975–99 period.
The Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, based at Tufts University in Boston, provides strategic information to help drug developers, regulators and policy-makers improve the quality and efficiency of pharmaceutical development, review and utilisation.