Non-Profit Offers Free Kits of Potential Malaria Cures for Researchers to Study

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malaria-boxA nonprofit called Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) is sending free kits of potential malaria cures for researchers. It’s called The Malaria Box, and it is the result of a high-throughput screen done by MMV and cooperating pharmaceutical companies. All you have to do is send your request, along with a summary of your research and how you plan to share the data. The box contain samples of 400 substances that MMV has found may be promising malaria cures. The Malaria Box is meant to be a starting point for researchers at universities or small companies.

Available free of charge, on request, the Malaria Box is a treasure trove of 400 diverse compounds with antimalarial activity. The Malaria Box has been assembled by MMV in a bid to catalyse malaria and neglected disease drug discovery and research. All of the compounds have confirmed activity against the blood-stage of P. falciparum and are commercially available. It includes:

  • 200 diverse drug-like compounds as starting points for oral drug discovery and development
  • 200 diverse probe-like compounds for use as biological tools in malaria research

The final selection, formatted as solutions at 10mM concentration in dimethyl sulfoxide, was distilled from around 20,000 hits generated from an extensive screening campaign of around four million compounds from the libraries of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, TN, USA, Novartis and GSK. The selection was made to provide the broadest cross-section of structural diversity and, in the case of the drug-like compounds, properties commensurate with oral absorption and the minimum presence of toxicophores.

All that is asked in return of Malaria Box users is for the resulting data to be published and placed in the public domain to help continue the virtuous cycle of research.

More information Medicines for Malaria Venture.

SMS for Life Uses Mobile Phones to Increase Access to Essential Antimalaria Medications

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SMS for Life harnesses everyday technology to improve access to essential malaria medicines in rural areas of developing countries. It uses a combination of mobile phones, SMS messages and electronic mapping technology to track weekly stock levels at public health facilities in order to:

  • Eliminate stock-outs
  • Increase access to essential medicines
  • Reduce the number of deaths from malaria

SMS for Life is an innovative public-private partnership led by Novartis and supported by the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, IBM, Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Vodacom and Vodafone. The project comes under the umbrella of the global Roll Back Malaria Partnership.

New Drug Synriam Approved to Treat Malaria in India

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A new drug to treat malaria, Synriam, was launched in India by Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited. The drug will provide additional options for malaria treatment as  traditional drugs become increasingly ineffective against the deadly malarial parasite because of acquired resistance to available medications.

Taken as a tablet once a day for three days, Synriam may be more effective, cheaper, and have fewer side effects and does not have to be taken with food, according to the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). From 2000 to 2010, Jonathan Vennerstrom, Ph.D., a professor at the UNMC College of Pharmacy, led an international team that created the drug compound that led to the development of Synriam. Developed by Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Limited, the medication now is approved for treatment in adults in India. The company also is working to create a children’s formula and make the drug available in Africa, Asia and South America.

“With more than 200 million cases of malaria each year, the potential impact this drug could have on saving and improving lives worldwide is significant,” Dr. Vennerstrom said. “That’s been our goal and now we are at the finish line.

Tim Wells, MMV’s chief scientific officer, said the completion of a phase III study in Indian adults and the approval of the combination by the Indian regulators was a major milestone. “We look forward to more data from patients in Africa and from studies with children, since this is where the vast majority of the disease is,” he said.

Courtney Fletcher, Pharm.D., dean of the UNMC College of Pharmacy, said another benefit of arterolane, the key component in the new drug invented by Dr. Vennerstrom, is it’s a synthetic. “This is an importance advance in antimalaria drugs. Since it’s a synthetic drug, it doesn’t depend on the availability of a natural plant source like some other antimalarials, which also makes it less expensive.”

Dr. Vennerstrom and his team also have developed a second drug candidate that might be even more superior than the first. It currently is being tested in phase II clinical trials by MMV in Bangkok, Thailand.

“This drug candidate seems to stay in the body longer, and therefore it may be possible to use a single dose instead of three doses,” Dr. Vennerstrom said. “We all forget to take our medications from time to time, so compliance becomes much easier when you have a single-dose drug.”

As a child of missionary parents working in Ethiopia, Dr. Vennerstrom took medications to prevent malaria.

Dr. Vennerstrom and his team received more than $12 million in grants from Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a non-profit organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He has been studying malaria for more than 25 years. The research team included scientists at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Switzerland and Monash University in Australia. MMV receives about 60 percent of its funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“We were very fortunate to receive the support for our project from MMV,” he said. “It is always unpredictable whether or not a drug candidate will be successful.”

Source: University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC)

Higher Research Funding Leads to 4x Rise in New Anti-Malaria Product Pipeline

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A new analysis of progress in the global fight against malaria finds a four-fold increase in annual funding for malaria research and development (R&D) in just 16 years—increasing from US$121 million in 1993 to US$612 million in 2009, with a particularly rapid increase since 2004. The funding has generated the strongest pipeline of malaria control and prevention products in history.

The report warns, however, that even a small decline in annual funding could jeopardize this pipeline, derail development of needed products, and paradoxically also increase development costs later. The report’s authors assessed progress to date against the R&D funding goals in the 2008 Global Malaria Action Plan and what will be needed in the coming decade to deliver the suite of products needed to manage, eliminate and—ultimately—eradicate malaria from the world. The answer is sustained, relatively modest increases that will boost total annual funding to US$690 million by 2015, followed by a larger jump in 2016 to US$785 million. [Read more…]

“SMS for Life” Malaria Initiative for Tanzania Announced

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In commemoration of World Malaria Day 2011 (25 April), organizations in an innovative public-private initiative announce the nationwide roll-out of a unique malaria treatment access initiative, “SMS for Life,” across the United Republic of Tanzania. The roll-out follows a successful pilot project where mobile and electronic mapping technology was used to track the stock levels of anti-malarial drugs at health facilities to manage supplies of these essential treatments.

Launched in 2009, the “SMS for Life” pilot ran across three districts in Tanzania, ensuring access to essential malaria treatments for 888,000 people. 99% of health facilities involved avoided stock-outs of the artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), one of the main anti-malarial medicines.2 “SMS for Life” will now be deployed across 5,000 health facilities in 131 districts in Tanzania, covering a population of over 40 million.

Under the auspice of the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, this roll-out is led by Novartis and supported by Vodacom, Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, all under the umbrella of the global Roll Back Malaria Partnership.

Malaria kills about 800,000 people each year, the vast majority of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa where the disease is a leading cause of death for children under five, claiming the life of a child every 45 seconds.2 Although malaria is preventable and treatable, life-saving medicines do not always reach the patients who need them, particularly those living in remote areas. Stock-outs are a major hurdle in the maintenance of access to essential malaria treatments.

H.E. Dr Hadji Hussein Mponda, Minister for Health & Social Welfare in Tanzania, said “the simple truth is that if there are no effective malaria treatments available in the health facilities then people will likely die, especially young children and pregnant women who are most at risk of the disease. Reducing antimalarial drugs stock-outs saves lives, and so we are delighted that the SMS for Life programme that improves stock position information will now be rolled-out across Tanzania and we welcome this innovation.”

“SMS for Life” has demonstrated that we can overcome the longstanding problem of stock-outs at the health facility level. This flexible scheme can be implemented quickly and at relatively low cost in any country to track any medicine,” said Jim Barrington, “SMS for Life” Program Director and former Chief Information Officer at Novartis. “It’s rewarding to see how a unique partnership, which combines the specific skills and experience of its various members to deliver an innovative use of everyday technologies, positively impacts the lives of malaria patients, their families and communities. “SMS for Life” also has great potential to be implemented in all malaria endemic countries and within other disease areas.”

In addition to the roll-out in Tanzania this year, two further pilots will start. Kenya, with funding from Novartis via the global employee survey donation program, will implement a five district pilot to track ACTs and rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), in addition to collecting weekly case management data. MMV, through partnership with University of Oxford, will provide technical support for the implementation and evaluation of the pilot project. Ghana, with funding from Swiss TPH, will implement a six district pilot to track malaria medicines, an antibiotic and RDTs. Accurately monitoring the amount of essential medication, such as ACTs and quinine injectables, available in a given location, reduces the risk of shortages and stock-outs and ensures that treatments are available to malaria patients, even in the most remote areas, where and when they are needed.

Each week, automated SMS messages are sent to staff at participating healthcare facilities, prompting them to check the stock of anti-malarial medicines, and reply with an SMS detailing current stock levels. These messages are collected in a central web-based system that provides the District Medical Officers and other users with real-time stock level information, accessible via the Internet or their mobile phone. Using this information, District Medical Officers are able to redistribute essential medicines to where they are most needed and coordinate emergency deliveries to health facilities if necessary.

The Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GBC) Business Action on Health Awards Review Committee has recently selected the “SMS for Life” program as a Finalist for the Technology for Health award.

About “SMS for Life”
“SMS for Life” is an innovative public-private partnership that harnesses everyday technology to improve access to essential malaria medicines in rural areas. It uses a combination of mobile phones, SMS messages and electronic mapping technology to track weekly stock levels at public health facilities in order to eliminate stock-outs, increase access to essential medicine and reduce the number of deaths from malaria.

“SMS for Life” was initially piloted across three districts in the United Republic of Tanzania, covering 129 health facilities and 226 villages, representing 1.2 million people. When launched in 2009, 26% of all health facilities did not have any ACTs in stock, but by the end, 99% had at least one ACT dosage form in stock. In addition, 888,000 people in the three pilot districts had access to all malaria treatments at the close of the pilot, versus 264,000 people at the start, which helped to reduce the number of deaths from malaria.

About the partners
Under the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) is the Directorate of Preventive Services. NMCP is the custodian of all malaria prevention and control activities in the country. The NMCP is the owner and main user of the ‘SMS for Life’ solution and coordinates all project activities in the country, including planning, implementation & evaluation of the project. The NMCP also makes sure that all the districts selected are fully engaged in the process.

Novartis drives the overall initiative and has taken the lead in defining the solution, sourcing the partners, establishing a steering committee, liaising with the Ministry of Health in Tanzania and RBM Partnership Secretariat and providing all the resources and funding necessary to complete the pilot in Tanzania.

Medicine for Malaria Venture (MMV) is, along with SDC, one of two funders of the country implementation of the solution. They also manage funds from SDC, giving them the role of managing all project funding. In addition, MMV is coordinating the national training program and is contracting technology deployment required to affect this rollout.

The Swiss Agency for Development (SDC) is the second and major funder of the Tanzanian nationwide roll-out. Its grant is managed by MMV.

Vodacom, a local Tanzanian Mobile operator is providing, in addition to promotional materials like tshirts, smart phones with Internet and data access for use by all District Medical Officers and Malaria Focal persons.

Vodafone supported the design, development and the implementation of the technical solution for the Tanzanian Pilot in 155 health facilities until its completion in February 2010.

IBM supported the overall management of the pilot project and the provision of an on-line collaboration tool, “Lotus Live”. The tool allowed all the project partners to coordinate their inputs.

RBM Partnership Secretariat facilitates oversight, including the work of the steering committee and leads advocacy activities. It helps provide ongoing guidance throughout the project, placing it in the broader context of RBM’s activities.

About RBM
The Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership is the global framework for coordinated action against malaria. It provides a neutral platform for consensus-building and developing solutions to challenges in the implementation of malaria control interventions and strategies. RBM is a public-private partnership that also facilitates the incubation of new ideas and lends support to innovative approaches.

The Partnership promotes high-level political commitment and keeps malaria high on the global agenda by enabling, harmonizing and amplifying partner-driven advocacy initiatives. Founded by UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank and UNDP and strengthened by the expertise, resources and commitment of more than 500 partner organizations, the Partnership secures policy guidance and financial and technical support for control efforts in countries and monitors progress towards universal goals.

Source: World Health Organization (WHO), Roll Back Malaria

Anacor Pharmaceuticals Enters Development Agreement with Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV)

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Anacor Pharmaceuticals has entered into a development agreement with Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) to develop Anacor’s compound AN3661 for the treatment of malaria.

Under the agreement, Anacor and MMV will work together on the development of AN3661 through human proof-of-concept studies. AN3661 was developed as part of a research agreement signed by the two parties in April 2010 to identify new compounds for the treatment of malaria using Anacor’s boron chemistry. AN3661 is the first candidate arising out of the research agreement to move into preclinical development.

“We are pleased with the productivity of our collaboration with MMV thus far and with the extraordinary promise of AN3661,” said David Perry, Chief Executive Officer of Anacor Pharmaceuticals. “We hope that the combination of our boron chemistry platform and research capabilities and MMV’s funding and disease expertise will enable us to develop AN3661 into a new therapeutic to treat malaria – a disease that causes the death of up to one million people a year.”

“MMV is delighted to be collaborating with Anacor on the development of AN3661, and hope that our joint efforts will take this exciting compound into human studies as quickly as possible,” said Tim Wells, Chief Scientific Officer, MMV. “The malaria parasite is already showing signs of resistance to current medicines, and we urgently need to fill the malaria medicine chest with new medicines to treat the millions affected by this disease. We look forward to working closely with Anacor, putting this compound through the rigours of preclinical studies to develop a new and effective next generation antimalarial.”

About Anacor Pharmaceuticals

Anacor is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing novel small-molecule therapeutics derived from its boron chemistry platform. Anacor has discovered five clinical compounds which are currently in development, including its three lead programs: AN2690, a topical antifungal for the treatment of onychomycosis; AN2728, a topical anti-inflammatory PDE-4 inhibitor for the treatment of psoriasis; and GSK 2251052, or GSK ‘052 (formerly referred to as AN3365), a systemic antibiotic for the treatment of infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria, which has been licensed to GlaxoSmithKline under the companies’ research and development agreement. In addition, Anacor is developing AN2718 as a topical antifungal product candidate for the treatment of onychomycosis and skin fungal infections, and AN2898 as a topical anti-inflammatory product candidate for the treatment of psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.

Neglected Diseases Initiative

Neglected diseases are defined as diseases that disproportionately affect the world’s poorest people, including tuberculosis or TB, malaria, visceral leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, human African trypanosomiasis or African sleeping sickness, and filarial worm diseases such as onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis. Despite the fact that these diseases cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide, and that the current standards of care are difficult to administer, have significant toxicities and are increasingly becoming less effective due to the development of resistance, there has been little investment in developing new therapies for these diseases due to the absence of a reasonable expectation of a financial return.

In recent years, a number of foundations and governments have created public-private partnerships to address this gap by funding promising technologies that may result in new drugs. In December 2007, Anacor established a partnership with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, or DNDi, to develop new therapeutics for African sleeping sickness, visceral leishmaniasis and Chagas disease. In May 2009, Anacor established a collaboration with the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development. In April 2010, Anacor entered into a research collaboration with the Medicines for Malaria Venture to identify lead compounds for the treatment and prophylaxis of malaria. In November, 2010, Anacor entered into a collaboration with UCSF and New York Blood Center to discover drugs to treat River Blindness. And in March 2011, we announced a research collaboration with the Institute for OneWorld Health to develop new treatments for diarrheal disease.

About Medicines for Malaria Venture

MMV is a leading product development partnership (PDP) in the field of anti-malaria drug research and development. It was established as a foundation in 1999, and registered in Switzerland.

MMV’s mission is to reduce the burden of malaria in disease-endemic countries by discovering, developing and facilitating delivery of new, effective and affordable anti-malaria drugs.

MMV’s vision is a world in which these innovative medicines will cure and protect the vulnerable and under-served populations at risk of malaria, and help to ultimately eradicate this terrible disease.

MMV’s strength comes from its product development partnership (PDP) model reflected in its network of more than 140 pharmaceutical, academic and endemic-country partners in 37 countries. MMV also works in close partnership with a number of WHO programmes that include TDR, the Global Malaria Programme (GMP) and Roll Back Malaria (RBM).

The key to MMV’s success lies in the focus of its mission, and the diversity of its team of almost 50 personnel from more than 20 countries, handpicked for their expertise and commitment to global health. Governed by the values of respect, integrity, trust and excellence, MMV is recognized for its industry-style portfolio management and wise administration of funds. It manages over USD 515 million received and committed from long-term donors such as government agencies, private foundations, international organizations, and corporate foundations. In addition, it receives in-kind donations in the form of staff, facilities, and technology from its industry partners, estimated to be equal in dollar value to the funds from donors.

MMV is currently managing the largest portfolio of antimalarial R&D projects ever assembled. Of over 50 promising projects, two MMV-supported artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs), Eurartesim™ and Pyramax®, are awaiting regulatory approval by the European Medicines Agency in 2011. In November 2010, Guilin’s artesunate injection for the treatment of severe malaria was approved by the WHO’s Prequalification programme with assistance from MMV. In addition, a child-friendly version of the ACT Coartem, was developed by Novartis in partnership with MMV and launched in 2009. In the first 20 months following the introduction of Coartem® Dispersible, more than 55 million courses of treatment were supplied to children in malaria-endemic countries.

Source: Business Wire