Dr Sergio Wittlin, Head of the Malaria Drug Discovery Group, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), Basel, Switzerland
1. What attracted you to antimalarial drug research and, particularly, the ozonide project?
“I was actually doing my postdoc at the The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. At that time I was working in the breast cancer field and looking for a job back home in Switzerland. It so happened that Reto Brun was offering this really interesting position in malaria drug discovery in his group. The chosen person would be in charge of leading the team working on the OZ project in collaboration with MMV. I applied and was invited for an interview, but not in Basel. As luck would have it, the interview was walking distance from my lab in Melbourne at Monash University with Bill Charman. That interview with Bill was tough, but fair. And it obviously went well, because soon afterwards I was offered the job ...”
2. What was your main role in the project?
“Testing the antimalarial potency of the OZ compounds in vitro and in vivo.”
3. What is most exciting about OZ439 as a future antimalarial?
“In addition to Jon and Sue’s points, OZ439 is also fully synthetic. This means we are completely free from any issues, such as price fluctuations and unreliable supply, surrounding the agricultural production of artemisinin.”
4. OZ439 is now in Phase II clinical trials. What have been the main challenges the project team has encountered and how did you overcome them?
“Well, there have indeed been challenges. I remember one particular thing: it was back in 2003 at a meeting about 20km away from Frankfurt. The goal of the meeting was to select the clinical candidate and Bill Charman was presenting on behalf of the OZ team to an audience of a few selected ESAC members. The process took much longer than expected given the numerous queries raised by the newly chosen Pharma partner, who were obviously keen to know every detail about the drug candidate. In fact, Bill’s presentation took more than 5 hours...but it all ended on a positive note.”
5. How have you and your team most benefited from working with MMV as a scientific partner?
“I think we benefit from each other. Our institute has a very long history for working in the field of tropical diseases. For some time now, MMV has been the partner for malaria drug discovery. So working with MMV makes us really proud.”