Funding: Antimalarial drug discovery5 September 2006 |
A new international research partnership is embarking on a programme to discover and develop a new generation of antimalarial drugs.
The Wellcome Trust, the Singapore Economic Development Board and the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) have pledged over £10 million in funding, while the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases will manage the programme and conduct research jointly with several institutions, including the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation and the Swiss Tropical Institute.
The Trust will also be providing expert advice, project oversight and strategic support, along with partners MMV.
One of the top three killer diseases in tropical countries, malaria is estimated to kill over one million people and affect about 300m to 500m people annually. Research at the Singapore-based Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases will focus on the development of a one-dose cure for Plasmodium falciparum, the most dangerous form of malaria, and a new way to cure Plasmodium vivax, the cause of relapsing disease and the most frequent and widely distributed form of malaria.