Drugmaker Novartis said it will move quickly to ask regulators to approve the new medicine.
An experimental drug was effective against malaria in a new study, potentially offering a much-needed buffer against the rising threat of drug resistance.
The drug, known as GanLum, is made by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis. In a late-stage trial, it worked about as well as existing treatments against malaria – but it was also highly effective against mutant strains that show signs of resistance to the current drugs.
Once pathogens like parasites or bacteria evolve to the point where they can evade existing drugs, infectious diseases become harder to treat and people are more likely to get very sick or die.
Dr Abdoulaye Djimdé, a professor of parasitology and mycology at the University of Science, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako, Mali, said the new drug could “represent the biggest advance in malaria treatment for decades”.
“Drug resistance is a growing threat to Africa, so new treatment options can’t come a moment too soon,” Djimdé added in a statement.
Globally, there were an estimated 263 million malaria cases and 597,000 malaria deaths in 2023. The vast majority are in Africa, where children under the age of five account for about three in four malaria deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Today, most malaria patients in Africa are treated with artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), which was introduced in the early 2000s. But in recent years, the WHO says there have been “worrying” signs of partial resistance in countries such as Rwanda, Uganda, and Eritrea.
Instead of artemisinin, GanLum is made from two other compounds that attack the malaria parasite.
The study included nearly 1,700 people across 12 African countries. Half were randomly assigned to take GanLum, while the other half received standard treatment.
Four weeks later, 85.3 per cent of patients in the GanLum group had no symptoms or parasites detected, compared with 82.1 per cent of the standard-care group.
The findings translate to an overall cure rate of 99.2 per cent for GanLum and 96.7 per cent among the standard-care group, Novartis said.
The results, which have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, were presented at a scientific meeting this week. The trial was funded in part by the European Union, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Novartis said it will move quickly to ask regulators to approve GanLum.
The medicine “has the potential to both treat the disease and block transmission,” said Dr Shreeram Aradhye, the drugmaker’s president of development and chief medical officer.
Notably, the patients in the trial all had acute, uncomplicated malaria linked to Plasmodium falciparum, which is the deadliest and most common malaria parasite in Africa.
Dr Alena Pance, a senior lecturer in genetics at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, called for more data on whether the new drug is effective against other malaria parasites as well as severe and cerebral malaria, which are life-threatening forms of the disease.
Pance, who was not involved with the trial, said the findings are “really encouraging” despite those questions.
“The widespread resistance to anti-malarials in parasite populations around the world is notorious and very worrying given the significant prevalence of this disease worldwide,” she said.
