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GOVERNMENTS CALL FOR ACCESS TO EXPERIMENTAL DRUG

January 11, 2007

The governments of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda have asked for a sleeping sickness drug to be made available before clinical trials -- which have shown positive preliminary results -- are completed next year, the Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net) reports. In response researchers are enrolling more patients in the trials.

The trials are testing the effectiveness of a combination of two drugs, eflornithine and nifurtimox, as a treatment sleeping sickness, according to SciDev.Net article. The trials are taking place in the Congo, the DRC and Uganda.

Positive preliminary results from 103 patients have motivated the government authorities to request that patients not enrolled in the trial have access to the drugs, SciDev.Net reports. Nifurtimox is presently only approved for treating Chagas disease.

Nifurtimox, manufactured by Bayer, is supplied by the World Health Organization (WHO), but the agency will not approve it for treating sleeping sickness without more scientific evidence, according to the article. The current standard treatment for sleeping sickness is melarsoprol.