Fexinidazole is an antiparasitic agent. It has activity against Trypanosoma cruzi

Trypanosoma cruzi

Trypanosoma cruzi is a species of parasitic euglenoid trypanosomes. This species causes the trypanosomiasis diseases in humans and animals in America...

, Tritrichomonas foetus

Tritrichomonas foetus

Tritrichomonas foetus is a single celled flagellated protozoan parasite that is known to be a pathogen of the bovine reproductive tract as well as the intestinal tract of cats. In cattle, the organism is transmitted to the female vagina and uterus from the foreskin of the bull where the parasite...

, Trichomonas vaginalis

Trichomonas vaginalis

Trichomonas vaginalis is an anaerobic, flagellated protozoan, a form of microorganism. The parasitic microorganism is the causative agent of trichomoniasis, and is the most common pathogenic protozoan infection of humans in industrialized countries. Infection rates between men and women are the...

and Entamoeba histolytica

Entamoeba histolytica

Entamoeba histolytica is an anaerobic parasitic protozoan, part of the genus Entamoeba. Predominantly infecting humans and other primates, E. histolytica is estimated to infect about 50 million people worldwide...

.

Fexinidazole was discovered by the German pharmaceutical company Hoechst AG

Hoechst AG

Hoechst AG was a German chemicals then life-sciences company that became Aventis Deutschland after its merger with France's Rhône-Poulenc S.A. in 1999...

, but its development as a pharmaceutical was halted in the 1980s. Fexinidazole is now being studied through a collaboration between Sanofi and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative

Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative 501 is a non-profit drug research and development organization that is developing new treatments for neglected diseases....

 for the treatment of Chagas disease

Chagas disease

Chagas disease is a tropical parasitic disease caused by the flagellate protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. T. cruzi is commonly transmitted to humans and other mammals by an insect vector, the blood-sucking insects of the subfamily Triatominae most commonly species belonging to the Triatoma, Rhodnius,...

 and human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). Fexinidazole is the first drug candidate for the treatment of advanced-stage sleeping sickness in thirty years.