:: Neglected diseases receive attention ::
Medicins Sans Frontieres has set up a
not-for-profit drug research organisation called The
Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative.
This initiative aims to develop drugs for diseases such as
sleeping sickness,
leishmaniasis +
Chagas disease which together infect
350 million poor people every year, but which are not financially attractive enough for the world's commercial drug companies to work on.
Apparently, only
10% of the world's health budget is spent on tackling tropical diseases - although they account for
90% of the global disease burden.
MSF therefore aims to challenge the
world's public sector and charitable foundations to fund
$250 million of work, over the next
12 years, in order to ensure that latest expertise + technology are applied to tackling some of the diseases which cause the greatest suffering.