Research partnership launches simplified treatment for malaria

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

GENEVA (AFP) — Malaria patients can soon ditch complicated treatment regimes for one combining two drugs in a single dose, a non profit drug development group and a Brazilian pharmaceutical company said Thursday.

The new treatment will cost 2.50 dollars (1.57 euros) and will be made available throughout Latin America and Southeast Asia over 2008 and 2009, they said.

Some three million new cases of malaria are reported in Southeast Asia annually, while in Latin America, a million cases are reported every year, according to the non-profit drug development group, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi).

DNDi, which developed the new treatment with Brazilian public pharmaceutical company Farmanguinhos/Fiocruz, said its drug called ASMQ combines the...