Anti Malaria Project
Ranbaxy's Anti-Malaria collaborative research program on Track
Ranbaxy has been working on the anti-malaria collaborative research project since May 2003. Although antimalarial drugs have a large market, it is a market with very limited resources. Together with the challenges of drug resistance, poor health systems, lack of affordable, safe and convenient treatment options, malaria treatment represents one of the largest unmet medical needs.Ranbaxy collaborated with Medicines for Malaria Venture to develop the synthetic peroxide antimalarial drug in order to address this unmet need.
This novel antimalarial drug, RBx 11160 made headlines in Nature magazine in August 2004, as a promising agent to treat uncomplicated malaria. The production of RBx 11160 is not dependent on the availability of agricultural resources (from which the current Artemisinin drugs are derived), giving it a clear advantage in product scale-up and cost.
Ranbaxy is committed to developing a drug that is not only safe and effective, but also affordable to people in India, Africa and other disease endemic countries. Arterolane, the potential antimalarial candidate is currently undergoing Phase II b studies (dose range finding studies) in Africa, Thailand and India.
Ranbaxy- meeting an unmet need in the neglected disease segment
Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, the largest pharmaceutical company in India, and presently ranked among the top ten global generics companies, is building its capacity as a research-based healthcare company. Based in a malaria endemic country, Ranbaxy deeply identifies with the continuing crisis that pandemics like malaria are causing in developing countries. The Company has therefore committed its expertise in R&D to work towards a breakthrough in the treatment of this important disease.
Challenges in development of new treatment for malaria
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Between 1975 and 1999, only four of the almost 1,400 new drugs developed worldwide were antimalarial, and all were at least in part the products of publicly funded research |
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Significant R & D effort and funding required to develop new treatments |
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Returns on the R & D investment are lacking- as the purchasers of the treatment are the poorest countries around the world. Low cost is essential to ensure wide-spread up-take |
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Distribution of the treatment is difficult due to the remoteness of the areas in which the disease is most prevalent and poor health systems in malaria endemic countries |
Background
Malaria is one of the most persistent and deadly diseases, claiming the lives of more than one million people every year. The majority of its victims are children under the age of five and pregnant women in developing countries.
Malaria is a major public health problem in more than 90 countries inhabited by more than 2.4 billion people – 40% of the world’s population. The disease is estimated to kill a child every 30 seconds and to cause up to 600 million new infections worldwide annually.
Though the majority of the cases and approximately 90% of the malaria deaths are found in sub-Saharan Africa, the disease is now increasing in Asia and Latin America.
Concerns in the Existing Treatments for Malaria
There are more people dying of malaria today than 30 years ago. The main cause of the resurgence is drug resistance.
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Rising resistance to antimalarial drugs |
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Universal Chloroquine resistance to Plasmodium falciparum |
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Development of resistance not only compromises the efficacy of existing antimalarial drugs but also threatens to pre-maturely terminate the useful therapeutic life of new antimalarial drugs |
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Lack of effective, affordable and appropriate treatment options |
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