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Ensuring access to essential medicines for leishmaniasis control is challenging, as leishmaniasis is a very small and unattractive market for pharmaceutical industry. Furthermore, control programmes are severely underfunded. We conducted an analysis of global procurement of leishmaniasis medicines for the past 5 years in order to shed light on the current leishmaniasis market landscape and supply and demand dynamics. We estimated global demand of each leishmaniasis medicines, the amount of each medicine required to treat all reported cases, based on the number of cases reported to WHO and the first-line treatment regimen used in each country. Procurement data were obtained from procurement agencies, international organizations, WHO, national leishmaniasis programmes and manufacturers. Expert interviews were conducted to have a better understanding of how medicines were procured and used. The comparison of estimated need and procurement data indicated discrepancies in supply and demand at global level as well as in the most endemic countries. The extent of the gap in supply was up to 80% of the needs for one of the leishmaniasis medicines. Mismatch between supply and demand was much wider for cutaneous leishmaniasis than visceral leishmaniasis. This study presents a current picture of procurement patterns and imbalance in global supply and demand. Addressing improved access and supply barriers requires concerted and coordinated efforts at the global and national levels. Priority actions include setting up a procurement coordination mechanism among major procurers, partners and national programmes where forecasting and supply planning is jointly developed and communicated with manufacturers. In addition, continuous engagement of manufacturers and advocacy is critical to diversify the supplier base and ensure quality-assured and affordable generic medicines for leishmaniasis.

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Skin-related neglected tropical diseases, or skin NTDs, comprise a group of NTDs that produce signs and symptoms on the skin, and includes at least nine diseases and disease groups. The World Health Organization launched the ‘Ending the neglect to attain the Sustainable Development Goals: a strategic framework for integrated control and management of skin-related neglected tropical diseases’ in June 2022, which this article summarises and sets out the way forward including guidance on how dermatologists and dermatological communities along with public health communities may support this initiative to contribute towards achieving skin care for everyone everywhere.

As lymphatic filariasis (LF) programs move closer to established targets for validation elimination of LF as a public health problem, diagnostic tools capable of supporting the needs of the programs are critical for success. Known limitations of existing diagnostic tools make it challenging to have confidence that program endpoints have been achieved. In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) established a Diagnostic Technical Advisory Group (DTAG) for Neglected Tropical Diseases tasked with prioritizing diagnostic needs including defining use-cases and target product profiles (TPPs) for needed tools. Subsequently, disease-specific DTAG subgroups, including one focused on LF, were established to develop TPPs and use-case analyses to be used by product developers. Here, we describe the development of two priority TPPs for LF diagnostics needed for making decisions for stopping mass drug administration (MDA) of a triple drug regimen and surveillance. Utilizing the WHO core TPP development process as the framework, the LF subgroup convened to discuss and determine attributes required for each use case. TPPs considered the following parameters: product use, design, performance, product configuration and cost, and access and equity. Version 1.0 TPPs for two use cases were published by WHO on 12 March 2021 within the WHO Global Observatory on Health Research and Development. A common TPP characteristic that emerged in both use cases was the need to identify new biomarkers that would allow for greater precision in program delivery. As LF diagnostic tests are rarely used for individual clinical diagnosis, it became apparent that reliance on population-based surveys for decision making requires consideration of test performance in the context of such surveys. In low prevalence settings, the number of false positive test results may lead to unnecessary continuation or resumption of MDA, thus wasting valuable resources and time. Therefore, highly specific diagnostic tools are paramount when used to measure low thresholds. The TPP process brought to the forefront the importance of linking use case, program platform and diagnostic performance characteristics when defining required criteria for diagnostic tools.