After months of nominations, weeks of voting, and the participation and support of thousands of community members, the Rockefeller Foundation is pleased to announce the People’s Choice winner of the inaugural Next Century Innovators Awards, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi).

DNDi promotes the research, development, and distribution of drugs that treat some of the world’s most pervasive—and neglected—diseases. Their innovative approach includes endemic country involvement from the outset, partnerships across public and private sectors, and a rigorous research and development pipeline. Their strategy has lead to the development of affordable treatments for malaria, chagas disease, and sleeping sickness, among others.

As it does for the Rockefeller Foundation, 2013 marks an important milestone for DNDi: their 10 year anniversary. When we asked the staff at DNDi how they viewed the potential of their work for the next hundred years they said:

Our hope is that the work we are doing today will genuinely improve the health and save the lives of millions of people in low and middle-income countries for generations to come, through the development and delivery of new treatments for some of the world’s most neglected diseases.

Learn more about DNDi at the Rockefeller Foundation website.