NEXT-GENERATION MALARIA DRUG SPARKS HOPE AS RESISTANCE SPREADS
A new antimalarial that could help counter rising drug resistance in Africa and southeast Asia has been found highly effective in a trial, its developer has said.
In a phase three clinical trial the drug, known as GanLum, was more than 97 per cent effective at treating malaria in 1,688 adults across 12 African countries, according to results presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene annual meeting.
Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical company which developed the drug alongside the non-profit Medicines for Malaria Venture, said it has started the process of applying for regulatory approval, meaning the drug could be available within 12 to 18 months. It would be the first new class of antimalarials in a generation.
The results have been welcomed amid concerns history may repeat itself and render existing therapies ineffective.
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In the 1950s, malaria parasites resistant to chloroquine – then the key antimalarial drug – were first detected on the Thai-Cambodia border. By the turn of the millennium, resistance had spread across the globe and contributed to a jump in malaria deaths.
Fortunately, scientists developed a new class of treatments based on artemisinin – a chemical found in wormwood that’s long been used in Chinese herbal medicine. The resulting antimalarial treatment has revolutionised care since it was recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) some twenty years ago.
But for almost as long, scientists have been tracking resistance. Once again, drug failure was first recorded in western Cambodia – from there, it has spread across the Mekong countries, complicating efforts to stamp out the final strongholds of malaria in the region.
More recently, partial resistance has also been seen in some African countries, including Eritrea, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda – a significant concern given the continent’s higher malaria burden. While the treatments still work at the moment, scientists say the clock is ticking.
“Drug resistance is a growing threat to Africa, so new treatment options can’t come a moment too soon,” said Abdoulaye Djimdé, the trial lead and professor of parasitology and mycology at the University of Science, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako in Mali.
He added: “GanLum could represent the biggest advance in malaria treatment for decades, with high efficacy against multiple forms of the parasite as well as the ability to kill mutant strains that are showing signs of resistance to current medicines.”
George Jagoe, executive vice-president at Medicines for Malaria Venture, added that there was a “tremendous sense of relief” at the results and the move towards regulatory approval. He likened it to having a fire extinguished ready to deal with a new blaze, meaning the world will not be unprepared if artemisinin failure is more widely reported.
In a press release and briefing, Novartis said GanLum was also slightly more effective than Coartem, its long-standing antimalarial drug, and had a similar safety profile. It may also require just one dose a day, rather than two.
The new drug works in a different way to current treatments. While it contains lumefantrine, which is used within Coartem, it combines this with a molecule called ganaplacide, which is unlike any existing treatment and may block transmission.
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This is because it targets the malaria parasite early in the life-cycle – killing the parasite during its sexual stage, at which point it can infect the mosquitoes that spread the disease.
“Ganaplacide is also effective against malaria gametocytes – this is the stage of the parasite in the blood that persists in the mosquito, so by killing these forms of the parasite transmission is interrupted as well,” said Dr Alena Pance, a Senior Lecturer in Genetics at the University of Hertfordshire, who was not involved in the study.
“It is really encouraging that finally new compounds are being proven effective for the treatment of malaria,” she added. “Critically, because it has a different mechanism of action from artemisinin… it can overcome any emerging resistance to artemisinin.”
But Dr Pance added that “it is difficult to judge the quality of the data without the full paper,” which has not yet been published, and said that although the geographical range was wide, the trial sample “seems a bit small”.
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2025-11-13T12:50:48Z
