Junior researcher Erasmus MC: predicting the public health impact of a new drug against intestinal worm infections
Job description
The candidate will work on a 2-year project to model the public health impact and cost-effectiveness of mass drug administration (MDA) of the new drug emodepside against soil-transmitted helminths (STH), a group of parasitic intestinal worm infections that still infect over 1 billion people in low- and middle-income countries. STH are a diverse group of parasitic worm species that are transmitted via faecal contamination of the environment. STH infections cause intestinal blood loss, iron deficiency anaemia, and protein malnutrition, especially in heavily infected individuals and high-risk populations with low iron reserves such as children and women of reproductive age. The World Health Organization has therefore targeted STH to be controlled in high-risk populations by 2030. A key component of the control strategy is regular MDA of deworming drugs to at-risk populations. An important weakness of the current STH control strategy is its reliance on only two drugs from the same drug class. Although these drugs are highly effective against several STH species, they are not effective against others. As such, there is a need for additional drug treatment options for STH.
Emodepside is a strong anthelmintic candidate repurposed from the veterinary field and is currently undergoing clinical development for onchocerciasis and STH infections. Recent phase 2a and 2b clinical trials showed that emodepside has high efficacy against all major STH species and is superior to currently used drugs. Given these promising results, a Phase 3 study will be conducted in 2025 with the aim to register the drug in 2027.
The candidate will work with the existing mathematical simulation model WORMSIM for transmission and control of worm infections in humans. They will update the model to capture the biology of STH species that were previously non-responsive to the currently used drugs. In addition, they will calibrate the model to data from Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials, conducted by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH). The candidate will be based at the department of Public Health, Erasmus MC Rotterdam, the Netherlands. There, they will be supervised by assistant professor Luc E. Coffeng as part of the research section Infectious Disease Control. In addition, the candidate will collaborate with Prof. Jennifer Keiser at the Swiss TPH in Basel, Switzerland.