Novartis starts the fight against malaria

Novartis and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) have launched a patient trial for KAF156, a next-generation antimalarial compound with the potential to treat drug-resistant strains of the malaria parasite. The trial will test the efficacy of KAF156 in combination with a new, improved formulation of the existing antimalarial lumefantrine. The first trial center is operational in Mali and will be followed by sixteen additional centers across a total of nine countries in Africa and Asia over the next few months.  

"This new milestone underscores our company's long-standing commitment to the fight against malaria," said Vas Narasimhan, Global Head of Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer, Novartis. "With nearly half of the world's population at risk, malaria continues to be a major public health challenge. Developing new antimalarial medicines is critical to achieving malaria elimination. Innovative science continues to be our best weapon against the disease."

Deaths from malaria have fallen sharply since 2000, thanks to the roll-out of insecticide-treated bednets, but the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates there were still 438,000 fatal cases in 2015, most the them in African children.

WHO said last year it was rolling out the first malaria vaccine, developed by GlaxoSmithKline Plc and the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, in pilot projects in Africa with vaccinations to begin in 2018.

Novartis began selling Coartem, a combination of an artemisinin derivative and lumefantrine, in 1999. Since 2001, the drugmaker has provided more than 800 million treatments of Coartem without profit in one of the health-care industry’s largest access-to-medicine programs.

The company’s promising treatment KAF156 was among the first of a new class of malaria drugs to enter mid-stage tests in more than 20 years, Novartis said last year. It expects to complete the phase 2b study by late 2019. Narasimhan added it’s too early to say when it would reach the market.