of african trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), especially the west african form (trypanosoma brucei gambiense). hirsutism in the 1980s, gillette was awarded a patent for the discovery that topical application of eflornithine hcl cream inhibits hair growth. in the 1990s, gillette conducted dose-ranging studies with eflornithine in hirsute women that demonstrated that the drug slows the rate of facial hair growth. gillette then filed a patent for the formulation of eflornithine cream. in july 2000, the u.s. food and drug administration (fda) granted a new drug application for vaniqa. the following year, the european commission issued its marketing authorisation. sleeping sickness treatment the drug was registered for the treatment of gambiense sleeping sickness on november 28, 1990. however, in 1995 aventis (now sanofi-aventis) stopped producing the drug, whose main market was african countries, because it did not make a profit. in 2001, aventis and the who formed a five-year partnership, during which more than 320,000 vials of pentamidine, over 420,000 vials of melarsoprol, and over 200,000 bottles of eflornithine were produced by aventis, to be given to the who and distributed by the association médecins sans frontières (also known as doctors without borders) in countries where sleeping sickness is endemic. according to médecins sans frontières, this only happened after "years of international pressure," and coinciding with the period when media attention was generated because of the launch of another eflornithine-based product (vaniqa, for the prevention of facial-hair in women), while its life-saving formulation (for sleeping sickness) was not being produced. from 2001 (when production was restarted) through 2006, 14 million diagnoses were made. this greatly contributed to stemming the spread of sleeping sickness, and to saving nearly 110,000 lives. society and culture vial of eflornithine available forms vaniqa is a cream, which is white to off-white in colour. it is supplied in tubes of 30 g and 60 g in europe. vaniqa contains 15% w/w eflornithine hydrochloride monohydrate, corresponding to 11.5% w/w anhydrous eflornithine (eu), respectively 13.9% w/w anhydrous eflornithine hydrochloride (u.s.), in a cream for topical administration. ornidyl, intended for injection, was supplied in the strength of 200 mg eflornithine hydrochloride per ml. market vaniqa, granted marketing approval by the us fda, as well as by the european commission among others, is currently the only topical prescription treatment that slows the growth of facial hair. besides being a non-mechanical and non-cosmetic treatment, it is the only non-hormonal and non-systemic prescription option available for women with facial hirsutism. vaniqa is marketed by almirall in europe, skinmedica in the us, triton in canada, medison in israel, and menarini in australia. ornidyl, the injectable form of eflornithine hydrochloride, is licensed by sanofi-aventis, but is currently discontinued in the us. in other animals eflornithine is effective in mice. bacchi et al. 1980 found the drug to be curative in t. b. brucei infection of mouse and it is generally without toxicity. klug et al. 2016 are of the opinion that this demonstrates good promise for oral treatment. however although jansson et al. 2008 also effectively treated mice with it they found the pharmacokinetics of oral administration in rats very negative. brun et al. 2010 are of the opinion that jansson's results have killed the prospects for oral treatment.