EXPERTS DISCUSS LACK OF DRUGS FOR 'NEGLECTED DISEASES'

Researchers and scientists from 35 countries met this week at the African Network for Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative conference in Kenya to address the lack of drugs available for diseases prominent in developing countries.

"When you talk of neglected diseases you could be talking of practically every disease we suffer in this region. They are neglected not because we don't care, but [because] the new [treatments] are very expensive," Davy Koech, director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute, said at the meeting.

The nonprofit organization was formed in 2003 to promote the development of new drugs and formulations aimed at populations who suffer from under-treated diseases. The group has been involved in coordinating trials of new fixed-dose therapies to treat some of these illnesses. Although tropical diseases account for 12 percent of the global disease burden, only 1.3 percent of all drugs introduced between 1975 and 2004 treat tropical diseases, according to the group.

For example, there are nearly 650 million cases of malaria every year worldwide, 60 percent of which are in sub-Saharan Africa, the group said.