Sudanese research centre launches first-ever mycetoma trial
pharmafile | June 19, 2017 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | mycetoma
A significant step forward has been made in moving towards a treatment for neglected tropical disease mycetoma as the first-ever double-blind, randomised study for the illness has secured its first participant at the Mycetoma Research Centre (MRC) in Khartoum, Sudan.
Mycetoma is severely neglected when it comes to pursuing effective treatment, having only recently been added to the WHO list of neglected tropical diseases. The illness occurs predominantly in India, Mexico, Venezuela, Chad, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Somalia, Senegal, Sudan and Yemen – tropical and subtropical areas collectively known as the mycetoma belt, and mainly affects poor communities. The disease is an infection of the foot as a result of contact with infected soil or dung and causes severe deformation.
The new study will be carried out collaboratively between MRC, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDI), and Japanese pharma firm Eisai, the latter of which is providing the drug on trial – fosravuconazole. The study will compare fosravuconazole with the current treatment for eumycetoma, the fungal variation of mycetoma; the treatment is known to only work in small numbers of patients and can cost more than a month’s wage in the communities where it is needed.
“With the first patient enrolled now, what we have been working towards for the last ten years is at last a reality,” said Dr Ahmed Fahal, Professor of Surgery at the University of Khartoum and Director of the MRC. “An effective, safe, affordable and shorter-term curative treatment which is appropriate for rural settings is desperately needed for neglected patients suffering from mycetoma.”
Dr Nathalie Strub-Wourgaft, Medical Director at DNDi added: “This important milestone comes one year after the landmark decision to include mycetoma in the list of the World Health Organization’s official list of neglected tropical diseases,” “We are finally starting to roll the ball towards ending the neglect of patients suffering from mycetoma.”
Matt Fellows
