How Disease Detectives Unearthed A Forgotten Drug To Fight A Lethal Illness
The Huffington Post - 12/13/2016
Fexinidazole “is an excellent example of drug discovery scientists ‘rescuing’ a compound that was otherwise in the dustbin of a large drug company,” said Michael Pollastri, an associate processor in medicinal chemistry at Northeastern University who wasn’t involved with this research, in an earlier interview with HuffPost. “It’s a perfect example of how valuable it can be to revisit ‘failed’ drugs and to carefully consider whether new evidence can be produced to revive the compound.”
DNDi still has work to do to bring fexinidazole to patients. After completing its clinical trials, the drug has to be tested on children, pregnant women and other vulnerable populations. It also has to be tested on a less common variant of sleeping sickness, which comprises only 2 percent of cases but is currently treated with the highly toxic arsenic-based drug.
Fexinidazole “is an excellent example of drug discovery scientists ‘rescuing’ a compound that was otherwise in the dustbin of a large drug company,” said Michael Pollastri, an associate processor in medicinal chemistry at Northeastern University who wasn’t involved with this research, in an earlier interview with HuffPost. “It’s a perfect example of how valuable it can be to revisit ‘failed’ drugs and to carefully consider whether new evidence can be produced to revive the compound.”
DNDi still has work to do to bring fexinidazole to patients. After completing its clinical trials, the drug has to be tested on children, pregnant women and other vulnerable populations. It also has to be tested on a less common variant of sleeping sickness, which comprises only 2 percent of cases but is currently treated with the highly toxic arsenic-based drug.
