New Treatment for African Sleeping Sickness – Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a $22.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support a pivotal clinical trial of a promising new oral drug for treating African sleeping sickness.

African sleeping sickness, or trypanosomiasis, is a deadly parasitic disease transmitted by tsetse flies. More than 300,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with the disease, and an estimated 60 million people are at risk.

The Gates Foundation grant will enable an international research consortium led by UNC faculty to complete a Phase III clinical trial of the drug DB289 (known generically as pafuramidine maleate) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Angola. This trial is the final step required before seeking approval of the drug from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

To read the full press release, go to the University of North Carolina's Web site.