DNDi was created in 2003 to develop new treatments for neglected diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and sleeping sickness that disproportionately impact developing countries. It was founded by MSF and partners including research institutes from India, Kenya, Brazil, and Malaysia. DNDi uses a patient-needs driven model and has delivered 7 new treatments through over 160 partnerships worldwide. Its goal is to deliver 16-18 new treatments by 2023 and establish a robust pipeline of treatments as global public goods.

1. Michelle Childs
Head of Policy Advocacy

2. Origins of DNDi
1999
• First meeting to describe the lack of R&D for neglected diseases
• MSF commits the Nobel Peace Prize money to the DND Working Group
• JAMA article: ‘Access to essential drugs in poor countries - A Lost
Battle?’
July 2003
• Creation of DNDi
• Founding partners:
• Institut Pasteur, France
• Indian Council of Medical Research, India
• Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kenya
• Médecins Sans Frontières
• Ministry of Health, Malaysia
• Oswaldo Cruz Foundation/Fiocruz, Brazil
• WHO –TDR (Special Programme for Research and Training in
Tropical Diseases) as a permanent observer

3. “Today, a growing injustice confronts us. More than 90% of all death
and suffering from infectious diseases occurs in the developing
world. Some of the reasons that people die from diseases like
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, sleeping sickness and other tropical
diseases is that life saving essential medicines are either too
expensive, are not available because they are not seen as financially
viable, or because there is virtually no new research and
development for priority tropical diseases.
This market failure is our next challenge.
The challenge however, is not ours alone. It is also for governments,
international government institutions, the pharmaceutical industry and
other NGOs to confront this injustice. What we as a civil society
movement demand is change, not charity.
Nobel Lecture delivered by Dr. James Orbinski, Médecins Sans
Frontières International President 1998-2001, after MSF was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.

4. Brazil
India
Kenya
Malaysia
USA
DRC
Japan
Geneva Headquarters
8 worldwide offices
DNDi: Patient Needs-Driven & Innovative R&D Model
Founding Partners
• Indian Council for Medical
Research (ICMR)
• Kenya Medical Research
Institute (KEMRI)
• Malaysian MOH
• Oswaldo Cruz Foundation,
Brazil
• Médecins Sans Frontières
(MSF)
• Institut Pasteur France
• TDR (permanent observer)
• Deliver 16 to 18 new treatments by 2023
• Establish a robust pipeline
• open knowledge innovation: Affordable treatment and equitable access to
patients in need ; Develop drugs as public goods, when possible
• Use and strengthen existing capacity in disease-endemic countries
• Raise awareness and advocate for increased public leadership
S Africa

5. 7 new treatments delivered, recommended, implemented
• 32 projects, 8 diseases areas
• 16 entirely new chemical entities (NCEs)
• Over 160 partnerships, most in endemic
countries
• 250 staff, half in endemic countries &
close to 1,000 people working on DNDi
projects
• EUR 490 million raised equally from
public and private sources
• 4 regional disease-specific clinical trial
platforms/ networks and several
technology transfers
 Easy to use
 Affordable
 Field-adapted
 Non-patented
2016
SUPERBOOSTER
THERAPY
PaediatricHIV/TB
HIV/TB

6. DNDi’s success is only possible
through innovative partnerships
Universities
& Research
Institutes
PDPs
Int. Org.
& NGOs
Biotechs
CROs Pharmaceutical
companies
CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS
 Share the same vision
 Mutual understanding
 Involvement throughout the
whole process
Over 160 partnerships worldwide

7. • Ensure a public return on the public investment on R&D
• The costs of investment in R&D should de-linked from the prices and
volume of sales to facilitate equitable and affordable access.
• Future R&D investments will be needs-driven and evidence-based, and
guided by the principles of affordability, effectiveness and efficiency, equity,
and considered as a shared responsibility
• Challenge : Turning paper commitments into real ones
UN Political Declaration on AMR: Guiding Principles

8. • Help develop and support alternative approaches for financing
and implementing patient centred R&D
• Develop a list of missing essential health technologies and
target product profiles in key areas to guide R&D actors.
• Put Globally agreed Principles into Practice :
• Short term: Develop Code of Principles for R&D to apply to
publically funded R&D.
• Medium Term : Overarching Framework
Progressive steps to ensure a public health approach to Research and
Development