AWOL secures additional funding for drug development

The A·WOL programme are pleased to announce a $1.3million research award received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMFG) The additional funding will allow the A·WOL Macrofilaricidal Drug Development, headed by LSTM’s Professor Mark Taylor, and the A·WOL Macrofilaricidal Drug Discovery project, led by LSTM’s Deputy Director Professor Steve Ward, to amalgamate into the A·WOL Macrofilaricidal Drug Discovery & Development Programme. The funding boost will allow the A·WOL programme an additional year of research to further advance their lead optimised drug candidates towards pre-clinical development and to progress a portfolio of backup candidates.

Prof Steve Ward commented: “This is a fantastic endorsement for the A·WOL programme and emphasises the value of the anti-Wolbachia strategy as a paradigm changing therapeutic approach in the treatment of Onchocerciasis and Lymphatic filariasis. The discovery and development of new therapeutics is both costly and challenging. This additional funding gives us the opportunity to deliver a genuinely novel therapy and one that could contribute to  the World Health Organisation’s ambition to control and eliminate these terrible diseases.

The A·WOL Consortium consists of both academic and industrial partners funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose aim is to develop new drugs against onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis) by targeting the essential symbiont – Wolbachia.

In the same week, Dr Joseph Turner, from LSTM’s Department of Parasitology was awarded, along with Co-investigators: Professor Mark Taylor and Professor Sam Wanji (University of Buea, Cameroon) $1,000,000 over two years

The BMGF Grand Challenges (GCE) Grant Phase II award will fund the scale up, further development and application of a new pre-clinical model of onchocerciasis, an NTD identified as a priority target by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Global Health. The GCE phase II grant will help build on the success of the breakthrough studies originally funded by a phase I GCE award to Dr Turner and a collaborating team at the University of Buea, Cameroon. The Phase II award will implement a fully validated model for testing emerging candidate cures for onchocerciasis to a point whereby a rational decision can be made as to their suitability for onward clinical development.