Professor Susana Vaz Nery, head of the Neglected Tropical Diseases Research Group at the Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, leads a team from the Kirby Institute and other research organisations that has been awarded a Synergy Grant of $5 million from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
The grant will fund a program of research to establish the public health role of moxidectin – an anti-parasitic drug – for the control and elimination of onchocerciasis (also known as river blindness), as well as lymphatic filariasis, intestinal parasites and scabies, all of which are classified by the World Health Organization as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). These diseases are important causes of ill health in many low- and middle-income countries.
Moxidectin was originally developed in the 1980s for veterinary use against intestinal parasitic worms in farm and domestic animals. It has recently been approved for the first time in humans to treat onchocerciasis, a parasitic worm transmitted by flies that is endemic in rural areas of Africa and Latin America.
“Based on clinical evidence, moxidectin is an effective therapeutic agent against important parasitic diseases,” says Professor Vaz Nery. “However, it is another matter altogether to determine its effectiveness when deployed in mass drug administration programs, its acceptability by affected communities and the economic implications of introducing a new medication for NTD control.
“This new award will enable us to activate a multidisciplinary team with the necessary skills and experience to answer these questions and make a difference to the lives of communities affected by these devastating diseases.”
Other chief investigators are Professor John Kaldor, Professor Virginia Wiseman and Dr Lucia Romani from the Kirby Institute, Dr Alison Krentel from the University of Ottawa and Dr Luc Coffeng from Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam. Associate investigators include researchers from affected countries in Africa and the Pacific.
The team will conduct epidemiological studies, disease transmission modelling, and research into health economics and health systems.
NHMRC Synergy Grants support collaborative, multidisciplinary teams of researchers within human health and medical research to work together to “answer major questions that cannot be answered by a single investigator”.
Under the Synergy Grant scheme, 10 teams of researchers have collectively been awarded $50 million to support new discoveries in areas including public health, clinical medicine and health services research.