title: New perspectives for leishmaniasis chemotherapy over current anti-leishmanial drugs: a patent landscape.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although leishmaniasis is estimated to cause the ninth largest disease burden among individual infectious diseases, it is still one of the most neglected diseases in terms of drug development. Current drugs are highly toxic, resistance is common and compliance of patients to treatment is low, as treatment is long and drug price is high.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this review, the authors carried out a patent landscape in search for new perspectives for leishmaniasis therapy. This search encompassed patent documents having priority date between 1994 and 2014. Selected compounds were compared to current anti-leishmanial drugs regarding efficacy and toxicity, when experimental data were available.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most patents related to drugs for leishmaniasis have not been produced by the pharmaceutical industry but rather by public research institutes or by universities, and the majority of the inventions disclosed are still in preclinical phase. There is an urgent need to find new ways of funding research for leishmaniasis drugs, incentivizing product development partnerships and pushing forward innovation.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Instituto de Ciências Exatas,Departamento de Química , Av. Antonio Carlos, 6627, Pampulha, CEP 31270-901, Belo Horizonte-MG , Brazil +55 31 3409 5778 ; +55 31 3409 5700 ; sinisterra@ufmg.br.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Machado-Silva
authors.forename: Pedro Pires Goulart
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Guimarães
authors.forename: Carlos Alberto Pereira
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Tavares
authors.forename: Rubén Dario
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Sinisterra
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000981:Antiprotozoal Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000191:economics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016527:Drug Costs; D015195:Drug Design; D004351:Drug Resistance; D006801:Humans; D007896:Leishmaniasis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D055118:Medication Adherence; D058069:Neglected Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000469:parasitology; D010330:Patents as Topic; D012109:Research Support as Topic
chemical_list: D000981:Antiprotozoal Agents
keywords: amphotericin B; leishmaniasis therapy; meglumine antimoniate; miltefosine; paramomycin; patents; pentamidine