Drug Identified to Kill Malaria, Indian-Origin Scientist says Clinical Trials maybe in India

An international pharma collaboration of AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Columbia University and Harvard Medical School has identified a promising drug candidate for malaria that kills the parasite rapidly and over a long duration. The //research funded by AstraZeneca India and MMV involved over 50 scientists globally with varying skill sets and expertise.

The drug, kwon as triaminopyrimidine (TAP), is currently evaluated by Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) in various preclinical safety and toxicology studies to pave the way for first in human clinical trials within 12-18 months.

Dr. Vasan Sambandamurthy, one of the lead authors in this work from the erstwhile AstraZeneca R&D center, said that India could be a potential site and participant in the clinical trials for this drug as malaria is highly prevalent here with a huge patient pool.

The work was primarily done at AstraZeneca, R&D centre in Bengaluru with support from other AZ global R&D units in the US and UK for safety studies. Some of the efficacy studies in mice were done by GSK, Spain.



Source-Medindia