Gilead donates $20 million to enhance access to treatment for often fatal neglected tropical disease

US biotech major Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) has entered into a partnership with the World Health Organization to provide $20 million in funding and drug donations over five years to expand access to diagnostic services and treatment for visceral leishmaniasis (VL).

As part of this collaboration, Gilead will donate 380,000 vials of AmBisome (amphotericin B liposome for injection)to meet the needs of WHO to treat VL in key endemic countries, including Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, South Sudan and Sudan. VL, also known as kala-azar, is the world’s second-deadliest parasitic infectious disease and affects up to 300,000 people annually in resource-limited countries.

“This new collaboration comes at the right time as we gear up to support endemic countries in the Eastern Africa sub-region and South-East Asia to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis as a public health problem by or before 2020,” said Dr Ren Minghui, WHO assistant director general for HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases. “During the past five years, AmBisome, donated by Gilead, allowed many countries in the Region highly endemic for VL to implement WHO’s recommended first line treatment, benefitting thousands of people,” he added.