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  • News announcement
  • 30 January 2025
  • Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking
  • 5 min read

Global Health EDCTP3 endorses Kigali Declaration and reinforces its commitment to ending neglected tropical diseases

NTDs

Today, on World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) Day 2025, Global Health EDCTP3 takes further action in its commitment towards ending NTDs by endorsing and signing the Kigali Declaration, a high-level, political declaration mobilising political will, community engagement, and resources to end the suffering caused by these deadly diseases. 

In doing so, Global Health EDCTP3 confirms its commitment to ending NTDs through accelerating research and development, delivering new medical interventions, and reducing the transmission of NTDs in sub-Saharan Africa. 

The signing ceremony, with Dr Michael Makanga, will take place during a special World NTDs Day event organised by the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases

I am pleased to sign Global Health EDCTP3’s endorsement of the Kigali Declaration today at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, where the NTD community is re-uniting in support of our shared goal to end NTDs. We will not waiver in our commitment to end this neglect.  

To date, EDCTP2 and Global Health EDCTP3 have invested about €146 million in this area, including commitments to grants under preparation. Additionally, I am delighted to announce that, as of today, Global Health EDCTP3 is making €46 million available through a call to support inclusive research and innovation on NTDs. 

Dr Michael Makanga, Executive Director of Global Health EDCTP3 

Global Health EDCTP3 becomes the 84th endorser of the Kigali Declaration, joining other donors, like-minded academic and research organisations, multilateral organisations, NGOs, private companies and national governments, including EDCTP Association members in Europe (Belgium, Germany, UK) and Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda).  

The related Commitment Tracker is now updated with Global Health EDCTP3 funding for signed grants. A further €37 million committed in 2024 to grants under preparation will be included once signed. 

New funding opportunities for research on NTDs 

To reaffirm this commitment, this year, the Global Health EDCTP3 Work Programme includes a research topic focused on the development of preventive vaccines against NTDs in sub-Saharan Africa. 

With a total indicative call budget of €45.9 million, three research and innovation projects are expected to be funded. The projects should aim at: 

  • Generating data on novel or existing vaccines to make progress towards prevention, control and elimination of NTDs in sub-Saharan Africa. 
  • Improving the understanding of barriers for progression of new or improved vaccines against NTDs.  
  • Generating clinical data including pregnant and lactating women, newborns, children, adolescents, other vulnerable and neglected populations, and people with co-infections and co-morbidities. 

The call for proposals is expected to open on 30 January 2025 and the deadline to submit first-stage proposals is 20 March 2025. An Info Day will take place on 11 February 2025, where potential applicants will be able to raise questions about this and other calls for proposals.  

EDCTP investments in NTDs 

Between 2014 and 2021, the EDCTP2 programme invested €80 million in NTDs research, and with support from the EDCTP Association and its partners, has produced improved treatments for leishmaniasis, soil-transmitted helminth infections, sleeping sickness, leprosy, lassa fever, river blindness, loisais and schistosomiasis, whilst supporting African research leaders in NTDs

The EDCTP2-funded STOP Consortium demonstrated the efficacy of a fixed-dose combination of ivermectin and albendazole for the treatment of soil-transmitted helminths. The results, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases on 10 January 2025, offer new hope for the control of these neglected tropical infections, which affect around 1.5 billion people worldwide. Further development of this fixed-dose combination will take place under the STOP2030 project, funded by Global Health EDCTP3. The project is testing the safety and effectiveness of the fixed-dose combination in mass drug administration campaigns in Kenya and Ghana. 

Since its launch in 2022, Global Health EDCTP3 has invested €29.5 million in NTDs research and innovation projects. Six projects have been funded, involving 43 participating entities from 24 countries. Consult the table below for an overview of the work funded so far. A further €37 million has been committed in 2024 to grants under preparation. 

eWHORM is assessing the efficacy of a new drug (oxfendazole) for multiple worm infections across four countries based on an adaptative clinical trial. The project has recently developed a master protocol for clinical trials, which was favorably reviewed by the European Medicines Agency. 

StrogHAT is working on a new single-dose treatment for sleeping sickness using acoziborole. The project will contribute to achieving the goal of stopping gHAT (gambiense human African trypanosomiasis) transmission by 2030, as defined by the World Health Organization. Previously, the EDCTP2-funded project FEX-g-HAT contributed to the discovery of the first oral therapy for sleeping sickness using fexinidazole, with a positive opinion adopted by the European Medicines Agency in December 2023. 

 

Project 

 

Project title 

 

Website link 

 

Disease 

 

Grant amount 

Project Coordinator * 

Scientific Project Leader** 1

eWHORM Enabling the WHO-Roadmap 2030 Link Filarial and soil-transmitted helminth infections: onchocerciasis or river blindness, Loiasis, Mansonellosis, Trichuriasis and other intestinal helminths € 7,967,127.50 Universitätsklinikum Bonn* 
INTEGRATE An adaptive platform trial for the development of a new intervention to combat Lassa fever in Africa Link Lassa Fever € 8,000,000.00 Université de Bordeaux* 
NeuroSolve Implementation of superior treatment regimen and improved patient pathway for neurocysticercosis in Sub-Saharan Africa Link Neurocysticercosis € 4,234,052.00 

R-Evolution Worldwide Srl - Impresa Sociale 

PEP4LEP 2.0 Chemoprophylaxis for leprosy: comparing the effectiveness and feasibility of a community-based intervention to a health centre-based intervention in Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Tanzania Link Leprosy € 1,780,303.75 

Nederlandse Stichting voor Leprabestrijding 

Armauer Hansen Research Institute, Ethiopia ** 

STOP2030 STOP 2030: Towards the interruption of transmission of soil-transmitted helminths: promoting implementation of research results of a fixed-dose combination of co-formulated ivermectin and albendazole Link Helminthiasis € 3,553,502.25 Laboratorios Liconsa Sa** 
STROGHAT Stop transmission of gambiense human African trypanosomiasis Link Gambiense Human African Trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness € 4,001,936.25 Instituut Voor Tropische Geneeskunde* 

[1] The role of scientific project leader was introduced with the adoption of the Work Programme 2023, which stipulated that if the project coordinator is not established in a country in sub-Saharan Africa, the designation of a scientific project leader established in sub-Saharan Africa country member of the EDCTP Association is mandatory.

 

Details

Publication date
30 January 2025
Author
Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking