NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The international non-profit Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) and the Institut Pasteur Korea (IP-K) will collaborate to screen for and examine molecules that may be used as new treatments for certain "neglected" diseases, IP-K said today.
The two-year research agreement will focus on studying molecules that could be developed into treatments for leishmaniasis, which kills around 20,000 to 30,000 people per year, and Chagas disease, which affects around seven to eight million people every year.
Under the collaboration, IP-K will use in its PhenomicScreen technology to search for potentially promising drug candidates, and both groups will provide the other with access to their global networks with the aim of finding partners to establish new joint research programs, IP-K said.
IP-K's Screening Technology Platform Group uses the PhenomicScreen to identify novel compounds against infectious and chronic diseases.
This agreement expands on an initial partnership between the two groups, which began in 2007 and led to the development of new assays that identified new hit compounds against leishmaniasis, IP-K said.
DNDi's long-term objective is to deliver 11 to 13 new treatments by 2018 for tropical diseases like leishmaniasis and Chagas disease, as well as malaria, pediatric HIV, human African trypanosomiasis, and specific helminth infections.