I have been forwarding these since they reflect a new "strategic
partnership" approach by the World Health Organization - one worth
watching closely.

Sam Lanfranco CANCHID ListHost/Mgt
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                                                 Press Release WHO/74
                                                      6 December 1999

                 ORPHAN DRUG FINDS HOME

  Human African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness rarely makes the 
  headlines in the international press but according to health 
  authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), 
  the number of deaths due to human trypanosomiasis at least equals the 
  number of deaths due to AIDS in two provinces of the largest central 
  African country. It is estimated that 55 million people in 36 African 
  countries south of Sahara are exposed to the risk of contracting the 
  disease.

  The World Health Organization (WHO) as well as its Special Programme 
  for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, has been collaborating 
  for twenty years with a major pharmaceutical company Hoechst Marion 
  Roussel Inc. in the development of a life-saving drug, eflornithine, 
  to treat human African trypanosomiasis.

  Hoechst Marion Roussel and WHO have signed a License Agreement at WHO 
  headquarters in Geneva today which allows WHO in collaboration with 
  other partners to arrange for the production and distribution of the 
  drug.

  With the signing of the License Agreement, WHO and its partners will 
  actively seek the means to ensure the continued availability of 
  eflornithine. Earlier this year, WHO established a Human African 
  Trypanosomiasis Network which is to "monitor drug resistance and find 
  and recommend solutions for the treatment of sleeping sickness". One 
  of the Network's working groups – Drugs Availability and Affordability 
  – is chaired by a nongovernmental organization Médecins sans 
  Frontières (MSF). Part of the Working Group's brief is to "ensure the 
  production, commercialisation and registration of eflornithine in 
  Africa and Europe."

  Technology transfer from Hoechst Marion Roussel will take place once 
  WHO has found a new partner in the private sector, capable of 
  producing eflornithine. In the meantime, MSF and WHO have been in 
  contact with the international donor community to finance the purchase 
  of adequate drug supplies. Since the vast majority of people with 
  sleeping sickness will not be able to afford to pay for the drug, 
  international financing will be needed. Securing procurement funds in 
  advance will facilitate the search for a producer.

  "The partnership between WHO, Hoechst Marion Roussel and MSF is a 
  wonderful example of the new hands-on cooperation between the United 
  Nations system, private sector and nongovernmental organizations in 
  fighting diseases of the poor", commented Dr David Heymann, Executive 
  Director of Communicable Diseases at WHO.

  Mr André Rouvillois, one of the Directors of Hoechst Marion Roussel, 
  expressed his company's "full satisfaction in handing over 
  eflornithine patent rights and manufacturing know-how to WHO, as a 
  logical conclusion of a long standing collaboration between Hoechst 
  Marion Roussel and WHO's Special Programme for Research and Training 
  in Tropical Diseases which permitted the full characterization 
  development of the compound in the treatment of sleeping sickness". On 
  behalf of his company, he thanked WHO "for the spirit of open 
  collaboration as well as those interested parties and particularly 
  Médecins sans Frontières who will now contribute to the distribution 
  of eflornithine to the needy patients".

  The drug should be administered intravenously in four equal doses 
  every six hours for 14 days in a hospital setting. The current cost of 
  treatment per patient is US$700. Eleven of the 16 countries that 
  regularly report cases of sleeping sickness have per capita Gross 
  National Product about US$ 1000. In many of the affected countries, 
  the total annual health budget is less than US$10 per person. The 
  worst affected countries are Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 
  Sudan and Uganda.

  Credible data are extremely difficult to obtain. In 1998, there were 
  27 000 reported cases from the Democratic Republic of the Congo as 
  compared to an estimated 350 000 cases. Angola reported just under 8 
  000 cases while independent estimates were speaking of 100 000 cases. 
  In many villages prevalence of sleeping sickness is over 50%, thus 
  making it usually the first cause of mortality.

  Difficult-to-control epidemics occur in the absence of adequate 
  medical surveillance affecting a large number of people and leading to 
  high mortality rates. Epidemics have serious social and economic 
  consequences when large areas of fertile land become totally 
  depopulated. "The current resurgence of African trypanosomiasis in 
  Central Africa is comparable to the situation in the 1930s when great 
  epidemics occurred", said Mr Felix Kuzoe, WHO African trypanosomiasis 
  expert. "This situation is of great concern to governments involved, 
  to the WHO and to the international aid agencies".
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