Unitaid funds over £6m to Liverpool researchers to treat major diseases

The project aims to advance therapeutics for tuberculosis, malaria and hepatitis C in LMICs

A research project led by the University of Liverpool has been awarded over £6m by Unitaid, a global health initiative to prevent, diagnose and treat major diseases in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and to advance long-acting therapeutics to treat or prevent tuberculosis, malaria and hepatitis C.

First launched in 2020, the LONGEVITY project aims to ensure that therapeutics for these conditions are easily accessible in LMICs as part of the University of Liverpool’s Centre of Excellence for Long-acting Therapeutics (CELT).

To date, the project has already accomplished preclinical proof of concept for long-acting medications for tuberculosis, an infectious disease caused by a bacterium that affects the lungs, and a therapy for the hepatitis C virus, which can lead to liver infection.

Caused by a parasite transmitted through bites of infected mosquitoes, malaria is responsible for an estimated 247 million cases, according to the World Health Organization’s 2022 World Malaria Health Report, which is currently an ongoing burden in LMICs.

The new funding aims to enable several additional activities, including developing long-acting injectables for tuberculosis and hepatitis C, with plans to start on vaccine microarray patches, to ensure that CELT can continue to address the specific needs and opportunities available for LMICs.

This will include facilitating the development and deployment of long-acting technologies by providing pharmacometrics tools, such as CELT-developed software Teoreler, a free modelling software based on pharmacokinetics.

In addition, the project will work closely with the Medicines Patent Pool to identify gaps in current therapies that could be mitigated with long-acting formulations, as well as establish a community of practice for long-acting therapeutics in perinatal and paediatric health.

Professor Andrew Owen, principal investigator for the LONGEVITY project and co-director of CELT, said: “Long-acting medicines hold enormous promise to address challenges in treatment and prevention of infectious diseases in LMICs.

“The additional investment… will help us to broadly address challenges associated with equitable development and deployment of long-acting medicines.”