The Wellcome Foundation/World Health Organisation Onchocerciasis Chemotherapy Project Joint Programme to discover and develop a macrofilaricide for onchocerciasis
Gutteridge, W.E.; Hudson, A.T.; Jenkins, D.C.
Acta Leidensia 59(1-2): 343-360
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0065-1362 PMID: 2198758 Document Number: 354105
The primary objective of the Wellcome Foundation/WHO Onchocerciasis Chemotherapy Project, which began in July 1982, was the discovery and development of a safe and effective macrofilaricide for the treatment of Onchocerca volvulus in man. A multidisciplinary team of biologists, biochemists and medicinal chemists was assembled. They investigated a variety of potential targets in filariae and carried out in-depth lead optimization studies on a number of different chemical series. However, the ultimate goal of identification of a compound worthy of evaluation in man was not achieved and the programme was closed at the end of June 1989. Factors that contributed to this situation and some overall conclusions are discussed.