User:Mr. Ibrahem/Fexinidazole

Fexinidazole is a medication used to treat African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) cause by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense. It is effective against both first and second stage disease. Some evidence also supports its use in Chagas disease. It is taken by mouth.

Common side effects include nausea, vomiting, headache, and trouble sleeping. Other side effects may include QT prolongation, psychosis, and low white blood cells. It is unclear if use during pregnancy or breast feeding is safe. Fexinidazole is in the antiparasitic and the nitroimidazole family of medications. It is believed to work by turning on certain enzymes within the parasites that result in their death.

Fexinidazole was first described in 1978. It was given a positive opinion by the European Medicines Agency in 2018 and approved for medical use in the United States in 2021. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. Development for sleeping sickness was funded by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative in collaboration with Sanofi.