Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and its arm Aurigene Pharmaceutical Services have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a not-for-profit research and development organisation that develops new therapeutic solutions for neglected diseases and the DNDi India Foundation.
The parties will explore a potential collaboration to develop and market novel and improved drugs for the treatment of identified Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) of national and global importance.
“We are grateful for this opportunity to explore a collaboration with DNDi. We will look to leverage the strengths and capabilities of all the parties to explore new drugs with the intention of making them available in India and in countries with high disease burden in these NTDs,’‘ Deepak Sapra, CEO – API and Services, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories said in a statement.
“This potential partnership reinforces our aim as an organisation to triple our existing reach to touch over 1.5 billion patients around the world by 2030, and to introduce innovative products to improve standard of care,’‘ he added.
Bernard Pecoul, Executive Director, DNDi said: “India is hailed as the ‘pharmacy of the world’ and a potential partnership with one of its pharmaceutical giants can help hundreds of thousands of neglected patients to access the drugs they need.’‘
The parties will also seek to work towards ensuring access of those drugs at affordable prices to patients in need particularly in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) that are disproportionately affected by these NTDs
The potential partnership will aim to bring DNDi’s expertise in NTDs together with the scientific, technical and commercial capabilities of APSL and Dr Reddy’s access to a pipeline of new chemical entities, pre-clinical studies, network and advocacy on these NTDs by DNDi, among others.
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of 20 conditions that are mainly prevalent in tropical areas.
Globally, 1.7 billion people are affected by NTDs such as mycetoma, sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis (kala azar), chagas disease, and river blindness.
Across continents, NTDs cause intense suffering, disability and often death, and impoverish individuals, families, and communities.