E-DRUG: US NIH grants MMV over $5,000,000 for malaria research
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5 September 2007, Geneva. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), has granted Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) more than $5M to be disbursed over 5 years for research that focuses on inhibiting an enzyme, dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH) that is essential for the malaria parasite to survive. The goal of this cooperative agreement is to find a compound that inhibits this enzyme, and develop it into a new antimalarial drug that can be entered into clinical trials.
Under the leadership of Dr Meg Phillips, Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the proposed work plan for the DHODH project encompasses an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach, bringing together the expertise of three laboratories: Biochemistry and structural biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (Phillips lab); Medicinal chemistry and malaria biology at the University of Washington, Seattle (Rathod lab); and lead optimization and preclinical development progression at Monash University, Melbourne (Charman lab).
MMV has a well-established target product profile for drug development candidates for malaria, and these criteria will inform the work plan to develop DHODH inhibitors as novel antimalarials.
'This is the first-ever grant received from the US NIH by MMV and will be a shot in the arm for continued research on this early discovery project. The grant will be used to study and to design a clinical development candidate that is a potent and selective inhibitor of DHODH,' stated Ian Bathurst, MMV's Director of Drug Discovery and Technology and the Principal Investigator on this project.
There is an urgent need for new drugs in the fight against malaria. Currently used medicines such as chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine are increasingly ineffective due to growing parasite resistance. This resistance contributes to the more than one million deaths from malaria each year. Artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) are the only effective treatment at present, recommended as first-line treatment, but even this medicine is often inaccessible to those who most need malaria treatment, especially in poor and vulnerable communities in developing countries. Each new chemical compound must go through a lengthy development process and the chances of it emerging as a new safe, effective, and affordable drug are slim. However, research must continue if the 500 million people affected by malaria are to have a choice of treatments.
For further information please contact:
Jaya Banerji, Communications Manager MMV:
banerjij@mmv.org
+41 79 707 7181
ABOUT MMV
Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to reducing the burden of malaria in disease-endemic countries by discovering, developing and delivering safe, effective, and affordable antimalarial drugs through effective public-private partnerships. After seven years of operation, MMV is managing the largest-ever portfolio of malaria drug research with over 30 projects in different stages of drug research and development of which three new artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) have completed phase III clinical trials and are ready for registration by a stringent regulatory authority. MMV's goal is to register at least one new antimalarial before 2010 and maintain a sustainable pipeline of antimalarials to meet the needs of the 2.4 billion people at risk from this deadly disease. For further information please consult http://www.mmv.org
Jaya Banerji
Communications Manager, MMV
Tel: +41 22 799 4071
Mob: +41 79 707 7181
email: banerjij@mmv.org
Medicines for Malaria Venture
Rte de Pré Bois 20
ICC Building, Block G
PO Box 1826
1215 Geneva 15