Eisai receives WHO prequalification for lymphatic filariasis medicine

Eisai has announced that its promising new treatment for lymphatic filariasis has been granted prequalification status from the World Health Organization.

The company's diethylcarbamazine citrate 100 mg tablets, which are manufactured at its Vizag Plant in India, have become the first product to receive prequalification from the WHO for the treatment of a neglected tropical disease (NTD).

Eisai has agreed to produce 2.2 billion high-quality tablets and will work with WHO to supply the tablets free of charge to endemic countries over a seven-year period, thus helping to address the short supply of treatments for this disease worldwide.

This comes as part of Eisai's commitments under the London Declaration, a global public-private partnership which aims to eliminate ten NTDs by 2020.

A statement from the company said: "Eisai remains actively committed to addressing issues in global health including NTDs, in order to better contribute to increasing the benefits provided to patients and their families worldwide."

Last month, the firm also announced that its antiepileptic agent Zonegran has had its paediatric licence extension application endorsed by Europe's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use.