"Promising results from a new malaria drug offer hope against emerging drug resistance in Africa. In a clinical trial, ganaplacide-lumefantrine (GanLum) cured 97.4% of participants, outperforming an existing treatment, which cured 94%. Novartis, the maker of GanLum, based in Basel, Switzerland, says it is in the process of submitting the drug for regulatory approval, and it could be available in 12-18 months. It would be the first new class of malaria drug approved in more than 25 years."
"Currently, the most widely used malaria treatments rely on artemisinin, a plant-derived compound that rapidly kills malaria parasites. But partial resistance to this compound has been identified in southeast Asia and several African countries. "There is a great need for non-artemisinin-based drugs to treat malaria," says Philip Rosenthal, a malaria specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. Although it's not clear whether this resistance is causing treatment failures, having alternatives is important in case current therapies lose effectiveness."
Ganaplacide-lumefantrine (GanLum) produced a 97.4% cure rate in a clinical trial, compared with 94% for a standard artemisinin-based therapy. Novartis is submitting GanLum for regulatory approval and expects potential availability in 12–18 months, representing the first new class of malaria drug in over 25 years. Malaria infects hundreds of millions and causes nearly 600,000 deaths annually, mostly in children under five. Partial resistance to artemisinin has been observed in Southeast Asia and several African countries, creating a need for non-artemisinin treatments. Medicines for Malaria Venture collaborated with Novartis and supported development; trial results were presented at the ASTMH meeting.
Read at Nature
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]