Novartis and Medicines for Malaria Venture 'best combination' to tackle resistance to current therapies

Novartis (NOVN: VX) might have a long heritage in leading antimalarial drug development, but there is a new awareness that it needs to bring forward therapies that treat the disease in a different way, says David Hughes, senior global program head in clinical development at the Swiss pharma giant.

The company’s 1999 launch of Coartem (artemether/lumefantrine), the first fixed-dose Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), signalled the start of a new era of effective treatment.

Since 2001, the Novartis Malaria Initiative has made this treatment available to 750 million people without profit, many of them children, along with the necessary education and health-system strengthening alongside this, saving millions of lives across Africa, in particular.