Sanofi Drug Raises Hopes of Wiping Out Sleeping Sickness

A drug co-developed by Sanofi is highly effective at treating the sometimes lethal disease called sleeping sickness and could help eradicate the ailment by the end of the decade.

A single oral dose of acoziborole was 95% effective at curing patients with a late-stage form of the parasitic disease, according to a study published in The Lancet. The drug was co-developed by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative.

The illness is endemic across much of sub-Saharan Africa. Tsetse flies transmit the parasite, which mostly affects people in rural areas where there’s often little medical infrastructure, according to the World Health ...