DNDi receives BBVA Foundation award for delivering new treatments for neglected diseases

Today in Madrid, Spain, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) received the BBVA Foundation 'Frontiers of Knowledge and Culture Award for Development Cooperation'. This EUR 400,000 award will be presented at a ceremony in Madrid, Spain, in June of this year.

Médecins Sans Frontières Spain nominated DNDi for this award for having delivered six new treatments for neglected diseases, notably Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness, and malaria, in less than 10 years, while building sustainable research capacity in disease-endemic countries.

The award is conferred annually to initiatives that excel in areas such as research to address particular global challenges, in domains including basic sciences (physics, chemistry, mathematics); biomedicine; ecology and conservation biology; information and communication technologies; economics; finance and management; contemporary music; climate change; and development cooperation.

'Controlling and eliminating diseases that mainly affect the world's poorest is vital to alleviating poverty', said José Antonio Bastos, President of Médecins Sans Frontières Spain. 'Finding adapted treatments is essential to this equation and DNDi's work has directly contributed to the health and welfare of the most vulnerable populations', he noted.

'We are very honoured to receive this prestigious award as DNDi marks a decade of research and development for the health needs of the most neglected populations', said Dr Bernard Pécoul, Executive Director of DNDi. 'We convey this important recognition of our work to all of the partners who are part of the initiative, including several key partners in Spain', he added.

Provided by Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative