Aid agency launches latest initiative to tackle diseases in the developing world

The quest for drugs to fight the world's most neglected tropical infectious diseases gained fresh momentum with the formal launch of the “drugs for neglected diseases” initiative this week.

Médecins Sans Frontières has teamed up with five international public organisations to promote affordable and effective drugs against leishmaniasis, human African trypanosomiasis, and Chagas' disease, among other infections that affect millions of people across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

“Existing drugs for such diseases are too expensive, too toxic, or just do not exist,” said Bernard Pecoul, director of Médecins Sans Frontières's campaign for essential medicine, in New Delhi last week.

The charity …