New Initiative in the Fight Against Neglected Tropical Diseases

LEIDEN, Netherlands, February 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Today, a new
initiative, based in the Netherlands, is being launched in the fight against
neglected tropical diseases: The European Solutions Enterprise for Neglected
Diseases (euSEND). euSEND is a joint initiative of the Academic Medical
Center of the University of Amsterdam (AMC), the Royal Tropical Institute
(KIT), the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD),
Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and Top Institute Pharma. In developing
countries, at least 1 billion people are the victims of neglected tropical
diseases, like leishmaniasis, an infectious disease transmitted by the bite
of a sand fly, and trachoma, an eye disease that is the leading cause of
preventable blindness in the world. Medicinal products and diagnostic tools
for these types of tropical diseases often do not exist, and when they do,
can be of poor quality or unaffordable.

As the first showcase of euSEND, three projects are being initiated with
FIND (Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics), a not-for-profit foundation
focusing on improving the diagnosis of diseases in developing countries. The
projects will focus on leishmaniasis, trachoma and tuberculosis. Other
partners involved are Leiden University Medical Center and the Royal Tropical
Institute (KIT).

Jayasree Iyer, program manager of euSEND, is very enthusiastic about the
initiative. “euSEND is a new and unique concept in the field of neglected
tropical diseases. Currently, there are very few diagnostic tests and
medicines suitable for dealing with these tropical diseases, while millions
of people in developing countries suffer and die from them.”

“We are excited to begin this innovative collaboration,” says Giorgio
Roscigno, the CEO of FIND, “and hope to build on our experience in developing
and implementing new diagnostic tools to accelerate the fight against these
neglected diseases.”

euSEND brings together universities, pharmaceutical companies, other
international research institutions and product development partnerships to
stimulate development of solutions for neglected tropical diseases. Iyer:
“euSEND takes on the role of matchmaker: euSEND ensures that research
expertise and financial means find each other. Also, euSEND arranges for
methods and technologies proven successful with other diseases, to be tried
in the research into neglected tropical diseases. To produce innovative
solutions.”

euSEND builds, amongst others, on the public-private partnership nature
of Top Institute Pharma, an organization dedicated to providing
groundbreaking, cross-disciplinary research within the framework of the WHO
Priority Medicines report. Jorg Janssen of TI Pharma: “This new Dutch
initiative is a major step on the path to developing medicinal products and
diagnostic kits for developing countries. We want to greatly speed up the
development of medicinal products and diagnostic kits for tropical diseases
while reducing the associated risk for partners and investors. Especially
since euSEND wants to bring the right research partners together, the risk
for investors is significantly reduced. In this way we hope to stimulate
progress and renew interest also in this currently commercially uninteresting
field.”

SOURCE Top Institute Pharma (TI Pharma)