Shares in Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis (NVS) were looking healthier today after hailing a generational breakthrough in the battle against the deadly malaria disease.
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First Treatment
Novartis said it is planning to seek quick regulatory green lights for its drug, known as GanLum, which it hopes could stop transmission of the disease and combat strains partially resilient to current medicines.
If approved, it would be the first major new anti-malaria treatment since 1999.
A recent Phase III trial of the drug involving 1,688 adults and children across 34 sites in 12 African countries had a cure rate of 97.4%, the company said.
GanLum was given as a sachet of granules once a day for three days and proved highly effective against mutant malaria parasites associated with partial drug resistance. The treatment was also found to have a rapid response against mature gametocytes, the sexual stage of the parasite’s lifecycle responsible for onward transmission.
“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,” said Dr Abdoulaye Djimdé, Professor of Parasitology and Mycology at the University of Science, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako, Mali. “Drug resistance is a growing threat to Africa, so new treatment options can’t come a moment too soon.”
Majoring on Malaria
Novartis has made malaria a major focus of its work. Earlier this year it received regulatory approval for the first drug, Coartem, to treat malaria in babies and young children.
Novartis launched Coartem to treat malaria in 1999, with the new dose strength now designed for small babies. The treatment is dissolvable, including in breast milk, and reportedly has a sweet cherry flavor to make it easier for children to swallow.
Such discoveries have helped the Novartis share price bounce higher this year – see below:
According to UNICEF, in 2022, there were 249 million malaria cases globally that led to 608,000 deaths in total. Of these deaths, 76% were children under 5 years of age.
Around 30 million babies are born in areas of malaria risk in Africa every year, with one survey across West Africa reporting infections ranging between 3.4% and 18.4% in infants younger than six months old.
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