On Wednesday 30th January the London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research (LCNTDR) was officiallylaunched, markingthe one yearanniversaryofcommitments made tothe London Declarationon Neglected Tropical Diseases.

 

200 attendees at the Centre’s formal opening heard fromspeakers including Baroness Hayman, former House of Lord’s speaker and member of the Labour Party, "The real strength of last year’s agreement was seen in the partnership formed by pharmaceutical companies, academia and governments. This Centre confirms their continued desire to want to work together," said the Baroness.
 
 

LCNTDR logo

 

The London Declaration was initially signed at a meeting organised by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in London a year ago where 13 pharmaceutical companies, four governments, and a host of international organisations including the World Health Organization(WHO) and World Bank joined forces to announce their commitments to improve the lives of more than one billion people around the world affected by NTDs.

 

TheLondon Centre seeks to sustain and coordinate the investment and commitments made at the Gates Meeting. Primarily it will undertake cutting-edge research to build the evidence base around the control, mapping and diagnosis of NTDs and will utilize and coordinate the abundance of London’s NTD expertise and research; bringing together leading experts to tackle these diseases.

 

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) devastate the lives of some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world, those who themselves are neglected people, NTDs cause severe disability, stigma, billions of dollars of lost productivity and even death.
 
Speakers at the launch
 
Other speakers marked the Centre’s formal opening included:
  • Dr. Andy Wright – Director of Disease Programmes, Global Community Partnerships at global healthcare company GlaxoSmithKline
  • Professor Don Bundy - Lead Health and Education Specialist, the Human Development Network, theWorld Bank (address givenvia video link)
  • Dr. Lorenzo Savioli – Director of the Department of Control of NTDs at the WHO
  • Concluding remarks weremade by Professor Sir Roy Anderson - the LCNTDR’s Director.

     

    Presentations

    Chaired by the Centre’s Deputy Directors, Dr Lesley Drake and Professor Simon Brooker, presentations were also given on the night covering the following topics:

    About the Centre

    The centre is a joint initiative of Imperial College London, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)and the Natural History Museum(NHM).

     

    As an umbrella structure the Centre will provide research support for staff at Imperial College London, the LSHTM, andthe NHMas well as other London universities with interests in NTDs, and for the existing implementation of government-led control programmes and technical assistance groups at Imperial College, namely the Partnership for Child Development (PCD) and the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative.