Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative 2023 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation

Statement by Dr. Luis Pizarro, Executive Director of DNDi, following the conferral of the 2023 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation.

“It is a fantastic honour for DNDi to be the recipient of the prestigious Princess of Asturias Award. To find ourselves among such illustrious fellow laureates is truly an extraordinary privilege. We would like to thank the Jury and the Princess of Asturias Foundation for giving such outstanding visibility to the millions of people around the world who are neglected by traditional pharmaceutical research. We would also like to thank the Spanish Royal National Academy of Medicine for their support of our candidacy.

This exceptional award comes at a special time for our organization, which is marking its 20th anniversary this year. Together with our partners, we have developed 12 new treatments for the most neglected populations around the world, and we have demonstrated that an alternative, not-for-profit model of pharmaceutical research and development can save millions of lives.

We are particularly proud of the successful research programmes we have established with leading medical institutions in Spain and in Latin America – all essential partners in our work to discover and develop new medicines against devastating diseases, such as Chagas and leishmaniasis, that continue to cause immense suffering for millions of people.

We would like to thank all our partners and supporters, without whom we could not have made such progress. And we will continue to work together, particularly on infectious diseases that are sensitive to climate change, such as dengue, which is spreading fast to new areas, including in Latin America and Southern Europe, and for which, unfortunately, there is still no specific treatment.”

Dr. Luis Pizarro
Executive Director of DNDi
Geneve (Switzerland), 1st June 2023