United in the desire to make a new pediatric treatment available for schistosomiasis

What milestones have been reached for the ADOPT program since its launch in April 2021

Peter: The ADOPT program prepares for the large-scale delivery of the potential new treatment against schistosomiasis in preschool-age children in the first African countries. Several milestones that are critical for achieving this goal have been reached.

A series of in-person workshops with partners in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Uganda represented a particular milestone for the program and Consortium team after a prolonged period of COVID-19 restrictions. Two main areas of progress during the last year were the social science studies and the selection of pilot platforms for treatment delivery. For the social science studies, milestones include the development of protocols, data collection tools, and ethical approval submissions, as well as the commencement of data collection in Côte d’Ivoire. In preparation for the future studies, potential delivery platforms have been identified and comprehensively appraised in each of the three countries. Finally, the planning process for the development of country-specific advocacy and social mobilization strategies has been initiated in each country.

However, the most important milestone we have achieved to date is that the large team of experts working in multiple countries and across different institutions is now truly working together as one united team, committed to making the potential new treatment available to preschool-age children, in the most equitable and effective way possible.

What has been your personal highlight of the ADOPT program so far?

Jenny: Having only joined the team in October 2021, the personal highlight for me was being able to meet with Consortium colleagues from Swiss TPH, Lygature, Merck, and the Technical University of Munich during in-person meetings in Geneva and Munich towards the end of last year. I very much appreciated the warm welcome. These smaller group meetings were a lovely opportunity to better understand the project, get to know the team, and work together to plan for future activities.

Peter: My personal highlight was the series of visits to our partners in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Uganda. After the suspension of all travel and in-person meetings due to COVID-19, we finally managed to visit all three project countries and meet all collaborators – often for the first time, although we had already spent many hours together in virtual meetings.

What is the outlook for the coming months?

Jenny: Key next steps include the data analysis and evaluation of the results from the social science studies – we are all very curious to learn more about how schistosomiasis and the new drug are perceived by the populations and stakeholders at the local level. These insights will be critical for the further development of the country-specific social mobilization strategies and toolkits. These, in turn, are integral parts of the pilot delivery strategy we have started to develop. We will also continue our ongoing engagement with a wide range of countries and relevant stakeholders.

What will be the impact of the ADOPT program for the people in Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya and Uganda?

Peter: ADOPT will support countries in addressing a currently unmet medical need. For the first time ever, preschool-age children from 3 months to 6 years, who were previously underserved, could have the opportunity to access a safe, efficacious and palatable drug to treat schistosomiasis. This is absolutely critical to reducing the health risks related to serious infections that build up over time and occur regularly in school-age children. It will also be a much-needed tool for programs aimed at interrupting transmission and ultimately eliminating this neglected tropical disease, as it will enable the closing of a treatment gap that threatens the achievement of this ambitious yet achievable goal.