Singapore: Japanese firm Eisai has entered into a partnership agreement to supply the Sabin Vaccine Institute with E6020, an in-house developed adjuvant that enhances the immune effects of vaccines, as well as all relevant information pertaining to the compound free of charge, to support the development of vaccines for two neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)－Chagas disease and leishmaniasis. E6020 stimulates the body's immune system via TLR4 (Toll-like receptor 4), a receptor that plays a key role in the body's innate immune system, and is expected to be used in a broad range of antigen vaccines to enhance vaccine efficacy.

Sabin is a non-profit organization dedicated to conducting research into therapeutic vaccines and NTDs. The institute works with governments, leading public and private organizations, and academic institutions on the research and development of innovative vaccines for vaccine preventable and NTDs, while at the same time advocating increased access to medical treatments.
Chagas disease and leishmaniasis are classified as diseases requiring innovative and intensified disease management (IDM) given their difficultly to diagnose and treat compared to other NTDs. This partnership is a new Product Development Partnership which integrates Sabin's strengths in the research and development of vaccines for NTDs and Eisai's compound and knowledge as a research and development-based pharmaceutical company, and which will seek to develop vaccines for these diseases as early and efficiently as possible.

Eisai is a signatory to the London Declaration, a coordinated effort to eliminate 10 NTDs by 2020 through the largest global public-private partnership to date. As part of its commitment under the declaration, Eisai has entered into this partnership with Sabin, and has also agreed to produce at its Vizag Plant in India 2.2 billion tablets of DEC (diethylcarbamazine), a lymphatic filariasis medicine currently in short supply globally, and supply it to the World Health Organization (WHO) free of charge from 2013.