New strategy for neglected disease drugs

A new strategy for finding drugs that can be used to treat diseases that are often neglected has been developed by researchers.

Distributed Drug Discovery (D3) has been created by scientists at Indiana University-Purdue University (IUPUI) and the initiative is expected to be a low-cost way to accelerate the finding of new, effective drugs.

Diseases that primarily affect low income countries are sometimes focused on less by the pharmaceutical industry when developing new treatments.

However, the D3 method will see educational resources distributed around the world early on in the development process.

Professor William Scott and professor Martin J O'Donnell from IUPUI wrote in the Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry: "The coordinated and recombined results of these distributed D3 resources can economically accelerate the identification of leads in the early stages of the drug discovery process.

"Simultaneously, this effort provides educational and job opportunities in both the developed and developing worlds, while building cultural and economic bridges for the common good."

Diseases that could be combated through the scheme include dengue fever, Chagas disease, TB, leshmaniasis and leprosy.

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