Chagas disease is a debilitating and fatal parasitic disease that impacts over 6 million people in Latin America.
Despite advances in diagnostic technologies, 70% of Chagas Disease cases go untreated due to lack of testing.
The research-driven, non-profit organisation, TroZonX17, advances diagnosis and treatment by developing affordable lateral flow tests for neglected diseases.
LifeArc is a self-funded medical research charity with a mission to advance translation of early science into treatments or diagnostics that can impact the lives of patients.
Funding from LifeArc is paving the way for TroZonX17 to introduce widespread access to an affordable Chagas Disease lateral flow test.
With funding support from LifeArc, a self-funded medical research charity and early translation specialist, TroZonX17 is taking an important giant step towards introducing a much-needed new lateral flow test for detecting Chagas Disease.
Chagas Disease is an infectious, parasitic disease, designated by the World Health Organisation as neglected. It is endemic in 21 countries throughout Latin America, affecting some of the world’s most deprived and underserved populations. Even though treatment and tools exist to successfully treat the condition, people are still losing their lives. Some of this can be attributed to the fact that only 20% of cases are ever detected, partly due to the lack of a simple and cheap diagnostic test - a solution which TroZonX17 hopes to deliver.
TroZonX17, a research-driven charity, has prioritised Chagas Disease, which when left untreated can affect the heart and digestive system and can lead to significant morbidity and mortality. The organisation manages early high-risk research and development by forming a dynamic international team to tackle challenges in early development, minimizing financial risk for manufacturers who operate in this low profit area. Conducting charitably funded R&D ensures the tests will remain affordable to the populations that need them.
Working with other infectious disease experts, TroZonX17 founder and CEO, Barrie Rooney has advanced chemicals which can detect Chagas disease across a wide range of regional variations and strains. With funding support from LifeArc, the TroZonX17 team, led by Dr Rooney, are hoping to develop a lateral flow test, which can then be scaled-up, manufactured and tested in field trials. If successful, the hope is that the test could ultimately become part of public health programmes.
By disconnecting profit from diagnostic test R&D, TroZonX17‘s dedicated project management team will help ensure the production of accessible and affordable lateral flow tests for use in clinical trials in remote tropical villages and rural medical centres in Latin America.
About TroZonX17
TroZonX17 specialises in building prototype Lateral Flow Tests (LFT) for neglected tropical diseases (NTD) and transferring them to international players who guarantee delivery of affordable mass screening in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). The business model we use targets this high-risk area of R&D and allows multiple players to engage to form a dynamic team to crack the early development problems thus minimising financial exposure for manufacturers who operate in this low profit area.
TroZonX17 builds a virtual, dynamic professional team around a specific infectious disease target, establishing the best design criteria, and project manages it through small scale manufacture and validation on biological samples. Then the project is transferred to a manufacturer capable of volume production and delivery in LMIC.
About LifeArc
LifeArc is a self-funded, non-profit medical research organisation. We take science ideas out of the lab and help turn them into medical breakthroughs that can be life-changing for patients. We have been doing this for more than 25 years and our work has resulted in five licensed medicines, including cancer drug pembrolizumab.
Our teams are experts in drug and diagnostics discovery, technology transfer, and intellectual property. Our work is in translational science – bridging the gap between academic research and clinical development, providing funding, research, and expert knowledge, all with a clear and unwavering commitment to having a positive impact on patient lives.
LifeArc is committed to spending £1.3 billion by 2030 in areas of high unmet medical need. Find out more at www.lifearc.org.
LifeArc is a company limited by guarantee (registered in England and Wales under no. 2698321) and a charity (registered in England and Wales under no. 1015243 and in Scotland under no. SC037861).
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