Over the past decade, neglected diseases have attracted increased attention and larger investments in research. Even often overlooked tropical diseases such as sleeping sickness and leishmaniasis have received more funding. “These Cinderella diseases, long ignored and underappreciated, are a rags-to-riches story,” said Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, in an address in May. But these newfound ‘riches’ have given rise to just a few dozen newly approved therapies and only a handful of truly novel drugs. A new analysis by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) finds that the rate of approvals for new compounds over the past decade is roughly the same as it was during the previous two-and-a-half decades, when the diseases received little attention.  Read more