New Drug

A new malaria treatment cured more than 97% of cases in a late-stage clinical trial.

Context

Malaria – a mosquito-borne, parasite-caused illness – killed roughly 597,000 people in 2023, overwhelmingly children under five in sub-Saharan Africa.

There hasn’t been a major breakthrough in treating malaria for 25 years, when a new combination therapy was created to treat the disease.

Budding Treatment

On Wednesday, Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis announced positive results from a study of its experimental malaria drug GanLum, which combines a new compound (ganaplacide) with an existing malaria medication (lumefantrine) to attack the parasites that transmit malaria to humans.

In a trial involving 1,688 adults and children across 12 African countries, the treatment achieved a cure rate of 97.4% compared to 94.0% with current standard treatments. Patients took the medication as a packet of powder once a day for three days.

How it Works

Ganaplacide disrupts how the malaria parasite moves proteins inside cells, which it needs to survive inside red blood cells.

Lab testing showed the drug worked against drug-resistant forms of the parasite and also blocked transmission of the disease from infected people to mosquitoes. The trial lead said, "Drug resistance is a growing threat to Africa, so new treatment options can't come a moment too soon."

Next Steps

Novartis plans to seek regulatory approval and expects the drug to be available within one to one-and-a-half years. The company developed GanLum alongside a Swiss nonprofit and plans to make it available on a nonprofit basis.