BY YOHANES JEMANEH
Diseases like malaria and other Neglected Tropical diseases (NTDs) are perceived to be related to poverty. Many citizens in developing nations are still suffering from these diseases while others lose their lives. In addition to their health impact, these diseases cause devastating social and economic consequences.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the global toll of malaria and NTDs is staggering. In 2020 alone, an estimated 627,000 people died of malaria, and there were 241 million new cases of the disease. Despite reaching several important NTD milestones in many countries – including the elimination of transmission of dracunculiasis, onchocerciasis and yaws, and the elimination of human African trypanosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, rabies and trachoma as public health problems – more than 1.7 billion people still required treatment and care for NTDs in 2020.
Progress towards the 2030 targets of the WHO global malaria strategy remains off track. About half of the world’s population is still missing out on the services they need to prevent, detect and treat the disease. Similarly, the targets set out in WHO’s NTD road map for 2021 to 2030 also face severe risk due, in part, to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Africa and Asia carry the highest burden of both malaria and NTDs and, as such, a continent-wide response will be required to galvanize political and societal commitment and facilitate greater regional coordination and cross-border collaboration between countries. Youth engagement and empowerment are also instrumental to ensuring that the next generation of health practitioners and global health leaders is able to take the lead in ending long-standing disease burdens.
Therefore, countries are striving to reduce the impact of these diseases by designing and implementing their own programs and engaging in various global health initiatives. Among such initiatives implemented globally to reduce malaria and NTDs is the Kigali Declaration.
The Kigali Declaration on neglected tropical diseases is a high-level, political declaration that aims to mobilize political will and secure commitments to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) target on NTDs and to deliver the targets set out in the World Health Organization’s Neglected Tropical Disease Roadmap.
By working together, the nations that signed the Kigali Declaration promised to adopting people-centered approaches and working across sectors. They planned meet and sustain the NTD targets in the SDGs and the WHO 2030 NTD road map. The nations also set to eradicate two diseases, eliminate at least one disease in 100 countries, and decrease the number of people requiring interventions for NTDs by 90 percent. These commitments will help relieve suffering, decrease the health-related drivers of poverty, reduce disability and stigma, and improve mental wellbeing and inclusion in society.
WHO expressed that renewed efforts and commitments are needed by member states of the Kigali Declaration, partners and all stakeholders at the global and local levels to ensure that the vision embodied in the WHO global malaria strategy and NTD road map becomes a reality by 2030 which include reduce malaria case incidence and mortality rates by at least 90 percent by 2030, and reduce by 90 percent to the number of people requiring treatment for NTDs and eliminate at least one NTD in at least 100 countries in the same period.
In relation to this, the Kigali Summit on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases concluded last Thursday with Heads of State and governments of various countries signing and adopting the Kigali Declaration on NTDs, and reaffirming their commitment to ending malaria by 2030.
In addition to member states, international healthcare companies like Novartis also pledge to support the fight against malaria and NTDs. Novartis, an international pharmaceutical company working on creating transformative treatments in areas of great medical need, has endorsed the Kigali Declaration on NTDs and announced a five-year financial commitment of 250 million USD to the fight against NTDs and malaria.
The summit comes at a pivotal time for world leaders to reaffirm commitments to end neglected tropical diseases and malaria through the adoption of the Kigali Declaration. The declaration aims to mobilize political will and secure commitments to achieve the SDG3 target on NTDs and to deliver the targets set out in the World Health Organization’s Neglected Tropical Disease Roadmap.
“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 longstanding commitment to helping realize a world free of NTDs,” Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said on the summit. “Today, by endorsing the Kigali Declaration and pledging to invest USD 250 million, we aim to accelerate progress toward elimination of these diseases, which continue to cause suffering and stigma for millions of people around the globe,” he noted.
Novartis was among the original endorsers of the London Declaration on NTDs in 2012, committing to a multidrug therapy (MDT) donation to support global efforts to eliminate leprosy. This was followed with a commitment of 100 million USD toward the fight against malaria at the Malaria Summit in London in 2018. By endorsing the Kigali Declaration today, Novartis reaffirms its commitment to the fight against NTDs and malaria, according to the CEO.
As part of the commitment over five years (2021-2025), Novartis will invest USD 250 million to advance research and development of new treatments to combat NTDs and malaria. This includes 100 million USD to advance research and development of its neglected tropical disease program, focusing on novel drug candidates for four diseases. In collaboration with wel come, the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD) is working to discover novel, curative anti-parasitic therapies for Chagas disease. The NITD was established in 2001 within the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) to apply modern drug discovery technologies to finding new therapeutics for NTDs and malaria.
Furthermore, “we are collaborating with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDI), with earlier support from Welcome, to jointly develop LXE408 for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis, and are currently entering Phase II clinical development. We also made progress on a potential first-in-class compound to treat dengue fever, which is currently in Phase I clinical trial,” the CEO said.
Although this is the most common vector-borne viral disease in the world, there is currently no specific treatment for dengue. Cryptosporidium infection is the most prevalent form of parasitic diarrhea, a major cause of mortality among young children in developing countries. The NITD has discovered a promising drug candidate, EDI048, currently in Phase I clinical development.
With regards to malaria, Novartis commits to investing USD 150 million to advance the clinical development programs of its three novel drug candidates to combat the emerging resistance to artemisinin. The company will also continue with activities to support the development of an optimized formulation for neonates and infants under 5kg, for whom no treatment currently exists.
Novartis has been committed to the fight against malaria for more than 20 years and to date, working with partners, the company has delivered more than 1 billion treatments, including more than 450 million pediatric treatments, without profit to malaria-endemic countries. According to the 2021 World Malaria Report, there were 241 million cases of malaria and 627,000 malaria deaths in 2020. Children under 5 are particularly at risk, and malaria takes the life of a child every minute in Africa.
The international endeavor to fight malaria and NTDs need to be consolidated in order to lessen the health burdens in developing countries. The developed countries also must support the developing ones to achieve common goals. Similarly, international healthcare organizations should assist these efforts thereby they realize their missions of creating a healthy global community.
The Ethiopian Herald June 29/2022
