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Medicines for Malaria Venture launches a five-year plan targeting eradication

2 Oct 2008

Paul Chinnock

Source: Medicines for Malaria Venture (see original article)

A new arsenal of antimalarial drugs is critical in the global plan to eliminate and eradicate malaria according to Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), which has launched a business plan setting out its priorities and plans.

MMV is a non-profit organization created to discover, develop and deliver effective and affordable antimalarial drugs through public-private partnerships. With over 40 projects, it is managing the largest-ever portfolio of antimalarial research. In order to develop the new antimalarial drugs and help facilitate their wide use, MMV has budgeted US$600 million over the next five years, of which US$130 million has been committed by donors including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and bi-lateral governments. According to the RBM Partnership, US$750-900 million per year, for the next ten years, is needed to fund malaria research and development.

MMV recognizes that the eradication of malaria will take many decades. However, given the long lead times involved in product development, the organization says that, ‘solid investments in R&D now are critical to ensuring that the world has the right healthcare technologies for eradication including medicines, vaccines, and vector control tools.’

Dr Christopher Hentschel, the Chief Executive Officer and President of MMV said: ‘The next five years will be a crucial period for MMV. With our partners, we will launch our first wave of new antimalarials. MMV is actively managing its portfolio to better align with the new global research agenda targeting long-term eradication.’

Among MMV’s main priorities set out in its business plan are:

• Achieving international regulatory licensure for three new ACTs: Coartem® Dispersible, Eurartesim™ and Pyramax® and provide clinical support to expand their use in special patient groups.

• Accelerating the development of new treatments, including a synthetic drug that mimics the mechanism of artemisinins, that can replace ACTs if and when this class of compounds falls to resistance.

• Expanding the drug development pipeline, including novel mechanisms of action, molecules that target the challenges of eradication – compounds that can cure malaria and prevent transmission which are synergistic with vaccine strategies.

• Developing and implementing joint product launch and access plans with its pharmaceutical partners to ensure maximum impact of new life-saving ACTs.

An executive summary of the five-year plan is freely accessible online as a PDF.

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