Soundbites from the MMV Discovery Partner Meeting

From 19 to 20 October, MMV brought more than 70 drug discovery experts and funders together at the Fondation Jeantet in Geneva, to forge a unified strategy and vision for research to eradicate malaria. 

Below is a glimpse of the action-packed 2 days, with key messages from the meeting's speakers. 

“The Discovery function (at MMV) has partners on every continent besides Antarctica. These partners are absolutely core to achieving our mission to identify potential new antimalarials. We couldn't do anything without them. This meeting will allow us to continue to strengthen those partnerships and move forward with a clear focus on supporting the malaria eradication agenda.”

- Jeremy Burrows, Vice President, Head of Drug Discovery, MMV

“Its really important to continue to strongly invest in discovering new molecules against malaria at this time. There have to be enough medicines in our back pocket to allow us to be able to drive the final stages of eradication in the 2030's.”

- Tim Wells, Chief Scientific Officer, MMV

“Access is the critical last step that transforms development of drugs into life-saving medicines.”

- George Jagoe, Executive Vice President, Access and Product Management, MMV

“MMV works proactively with stringent regulatory authorities early in the drug development process. To that effect, MMV and partners are preparing to submit two white papers to the FDA for consideration in updating the current malaria guidance.”

- Wiweka Kaszubska, Vice President, Head of Product Development, MMV

“We are working to identify novel and optimal combinations to optimize efficacy and thwart resistance.”

- Nicole Andenmatten, Translational Medicine Scientist, MMV

“We want to use challenge studies to get earlier evidence of efficacy, to decrease resource investment and aid in the decision making process.”

- Jörg Möhrle, Vice President, Head of Translational Medicine, MMV

 

“Modelling and simulation guides our decisions at key stages and helps an antimalarial treatment reach the patient as quickly as possible.”

- Nathalie Gobeau, Associate Director, Pharmacometrics

“In collaborative setup, to facilitate cross project analysis and fertilization, data reported in the database should target the QUARTZ objective (Quality, Useful, Accessible, Relevant, Tractable and standardiZed.”

- Dominique Besson, Discovery Compound and Data Manager

“CMC issues are a crucial part in malaria R&D. If we fail to identify early on potential developability threats, this will impact on the overall clinical development timelines and budget.”

- Cristina Donini, Senior Director, Translational Medicine

“Our partnerships reflect our mission; IP exclusivity, transferability & commitment to access ensure medicines reach those who need them most.”

- Sahar Sabetnia, Director, Business Development

“Drug resistance is (almost) inevitable. Working in Discovery we need to find mitigation strategies today so we can prolong the useful lifespan of medicines that we'll be developing tomorrow.”

- Benjamin Blasco, Research Scientist

“Achieving the ambitious challenge of eradicating malaria in the near future will not be feasible without treating patients infected with P.vivax and bearing hypnozoites. With the new biological tools becoming available in this area we are now in a strong position to start looking for those new and safer hypnozoicidal molecules and this is high priority for MMV.”

- Brice Campo, Director, Drug Discovery

“Chemoprotection is an essential pillar of the malaria elimination programme. MMV are actively working with their partners to develop new drugs that can be used to temporarily protect subjects entering an area of high endemicity and populations at risk from emergent epidemics.”

- James Duffy, Associate Director, Drug Discovery, MMV

“Openness activates the community.”

- Benoit Laleu, Associate Director, Drug Discovery, MMV

“If we really want to be serious with malaria eradication, we need to find a good way to block the transmission of the disease. Targeting sexual stage parasites in patient blood with next generation antimalarials will be key for success.”

- Didier Leroy, Director, Drug Discovery, MMV