EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan State University researcher has received $2 million to adapt a drug for use against two common and debilitating parasitic worm diseases in equatorial Africa.
Veterinary professor Charles Mackenzie will study flubendazole as a treatment for elephantiasis and river blindness. The drug has shown effectiveness against filarial worms, but previous attempts to inject it caused severe abscesses.
The award is part of a $13 million grant to the Washington University medical school in St. Louis from the Gates Foundation in Seattle.
The broader effort is coordinated with the World Health Organization, which has a goal of eliminating filarial diseases by 2020. Drug makers GlaxoSmithKline and Merck are aiding the work.
