New Drug Offers Hope for Eliminating Sleeping Sickness by 2030

A single-dose treatment called acoziborole could transform patient care and accelerate progress toward eliminating the deadly disease.

Mar. 16, 2026 at 7:52pm

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A new drug called acoziborole has been given the green light by the European Medicines Agency, offering hope that the World Health Organization's goal of eliminating sleeping sickness by 2030 can be achieved. The drug is a major breakthrough, as it is a single-dose treatment with minimal side effects, replacing previous therapies that were difficult to administer and had harsh side effects that discouraged people from seeking treatment. Sleeping sickness is a deadly disease transmitted by the tsetse fly, and the new drug can treat both early and late stages of the illness.

Why it matters

Sleeping sickness has been a scourge for decades, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths. While the annual case count is now down to around 1,000 globally, the disease has a history of ebbing and returning. The new drug acoziborole represents a transformative tool that can dramatically simplify patient care, improve access to treatment, and accelerate progress toward the elimination of this deadly disease, which disproportionately affects the world's poorest populations.

The details

Acoziborole is a single-dose treatment that replaces previous therapies that required intravenous drugs and lengthy oral regimens with severe side effects. Clinical trials found just one significant side effect of the new drug: mild to moderate headache. The drug can treat both early and late stages of sleeping sickness, caused by the Trypanosoma brucei gambiense parasite, which accounts for over 90% of cases. Researchers are also exploring whether blood tests could allow treatment to begin immediately, rather than waiting for confirmatory tests, which could further increase the number of treated patients and potentially end transmission of the illness.

  • The European Medicines Agency has given an important green light to acoziborole, and the drug could be in use by early 2027.
  • Researchers are currently conducting a new trial to determine if blood tests could allow treatment to begin immediately, rather than waiting for confirmatory tests.

The players

Gerardo Priotto

Leads the World Health Organization's efforts against sleeping sickness and was not part of the new drug's development team.

Stéphane Hugonnet

Worked on the clinical trials and leads the response to sleeping sickness for the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi).

Peter Hotez

Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Wilfried Mutombo Kalonji

Head of West and Central Africa Clinical Operations for DNDi, who helped lead the clinical trials submitted to the European Medicines Agency and is now overseeing a new trial to determine if blood tests could allow immediate treatment.

Monica Mungier

Researcher who studies sleeping sickness at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, but was not involved with development of the new drug.

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What they’re saying

“For decades, available treatments were difficult to use. These challenges were especially severe in remote, rural areas, where most cases occur and health services are limited.”

— Gerardo Priotto, Leads the World Health Organization's efforts against sleeping sickness (NPR)

“Many patients remember what the treatment was like for themselves or family members and were afraid of care.”

— Stéphane Hugonnet, Worked on the clinical trials and leads the response to sleeping sickness for the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) (NPR)

“Like many tropical diseases, sleeping sickness is a disease of the poor.”

— Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston (NPR)

“We can't dream to have better than this.”

— Wilfried Mutombo Kalonji, Head of West and Central Africa Clinical Operations for DNDi (NPR)

“The clinical trials are challenging. Patients are often in remote areas, with no electricity, no water. We had to set up all this, including training health workers, providing internet connections, electricity, and the safe way to get to testing sites, because they were remote. We overcame the challenges.”

— Wilfried Mutombo Kalonji, Head of West and Central Africa Clinical Operations for DNDi (NPR)

What’s next

The next step is a review of acoziborole by the Democratic Republic of Congo Ministry of Health and by the World Health Organization to see if the agency should update its treatment guidelines, which would help other countries authorize the drug's use.

The takeaway

The new drug acoziborole represents a major breakthrough in the fight against sleeping sickness, offering a transformative single-dose treatment that can dramatically simplify patient care, improve access to treatment, and accelerate progress toward the elimination of this deadly disease that disproportionately affects the world's poorest populations. However, experts worry that future funding cuts could hinder the drug's distribution to the countries that need it most.