Ranbaxy claims big success with mid-stage malaria drug

While traditional therapies for treating malaria have been steadily losing steam, India's Ranbaxy says that it has nailed positive mid-stage data for a new drug that promises to open a whole new front against the disease. Altogether, researchers tested arterolane on 230 people infected with the most lethal strain of malaria in India, Thailand and Tanzania. The therapy quelled the disease in 72 percent of them after 28 days, offering a similar efficacy profile that had been enjoyed by drugs...

AZ will open compound library to malaria researchers

The non-profit Medicines for Malaria Venture has just landed another Big Pharma backer. AstraZeneca says that it will open up the books on some 500,000 chemical compounds to help researchers track down new therapies to treat malaria--including some hard-to-treat strains of the disease. "Our experience with infection research, and indeed with all of our R&D efforts, has taught us that we will only find solutions to today's global health challenges through collaborative efforts,"...

Seattle BioMed initiates malaria vax trial

Seattle Biomedical Research Institute said it has officially started the first human clinical trial of its malaria vaccine candidate. The trial will assess the safety of a genetically engineered version of the malaria parasite....

Study: Pyramax works as well as Coartem for malaria

Pyramax, an experimental once-a-day malaria drug developed by Korea's Shin Poong Pharmaceutical and the Medicines for Malaria Venture, works just as well as Novartis' twice-daily pill Coartem, according to a study published in the journal Lancet. The drug cleared the disease-causing parasite from the blood of 99.5 percent of patients in Africa and Asia after 28 days, compared with 99.2 percent for Coartem, said researchers led by Antoinette Tshefu at the University of...

Genocea teams with military on malaria vax research

With the help of a $2.7 million grant from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Genocea Biosciences will collaborate with the Naval Medical Research Center to identify antigens that will be used to develop a vaccine candidate against Plasmodium falciparum for the prevention of malaria. Genocea...