The new artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) Pyramax® (a fixed-dose combination artesunate with the Mannich base antimalarial, pyronaridine) was developed by MMV in collaboration with Shin Poong Pharmaceutical Co Ltd. The registration dossier for this promising new antimalarial was submitted to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for regulatory approval under Article 58 of a dual indication against P. falciparum and blood stages of P. vivax malaria.
Phase III data published in The Lancet, April 24, 2010
There is a need for new artemisinin-based combination therapies that are convenient, effective and safe. This Phase III study compared the efficacy and safety of pyronaridine-artesunate with that of artemether-lumefantrine for treatment of uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria, and showed it to be non-inferior. If you are a registered user on The Lancet's website:
Read the article [1]
Read a comment [2] on the article
The release of this news coincided with World Malaria Day and raised significant interest:
- 22 April - Voice of America [3] reported that "Scientists have developed a new and improved drug regimen to treat malaria that they say is as effective as the standard therapy and more convenient". This story includes quotes from MMV's Associate Director, Clinical Sciences, Isabelle Borghini-Fuhrer and MMV's Chief Medical Officer, Stephan Duparc.
- 22 April - Reuters [4] published an article presenting both the findings and limitations of this study.
- 22 April - In a video report, Insidermedicine [5] spoke with MMV's Chief Medical Officer, Stephan Duparc and highlighted that "this new treatment regimen that only needs to be taken once a day is as effective as the gold standard twice daily therapy for malaria".
- 23 April - Bloomberg [6] recounted that "an experimental once-a-day malaria drug worked as well at treating the mosquito-borne illness as Novartis AG’s twice-daily pill Coartem, according to a study published today in the journal Lancet".
