C11486: Oral Single Dose Therapeutic for Malaria
Novelty:
The combination of a novel oral drug with Mefloquine administered as a single oral dose demonstrates anti-malarial activity.
Value Proposition:
Malaria is responsible for a million deaths each year and some treatments are not very effective, as the malarial parasite has developed resistance to them. Moreover, the effective treatment options are often multi-dose regimens which are not patient friendly and further encourage development of resistance. This technology is a novel oral drug which when taken in combination with mefloquine as a single dose exhibits anti-malarial activity. Other advantages include:
• Completely curative single dose therapeutic treatment as observed in malarial mice.
• Orally administered, no syringes are necessary (optimal for underdeveloped areas).
• Prevents need for multi-day, multi-dose drug treatments which minimizes the risk of parasite resistances and improves survival rate.
• More effective than other experimental single dose oral treatments.
• Competitive pricing is possible similar to existing malaria treatments.
Technical Details:
Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered a monomeric trioxane amide sulphur compound which is more stable than artemether and artesunate and when combined with Mefloquine demonstrates anti-malarial activity better than Mefloquine alone. The orally administered combination showed almost complete suppression of malarial parasites within 3 days with lasting effect till the end of the trial (30 days). This is significantly more effective than mefloquine alone (average 19.8 day survival), and also considerably more effective than all other experimental conditions tested. This technology can potentially provide another treatment option for malaria with patient friendly advantages of single dose oral administration.
Looking for Partners:
To develop and commercialize the technology as a single dose oral combination therapy for patients diagnosed with Malaria.
Stage of Development:
Pre-clinical
Data Availability:
Animal Data: Experimental results show improved disease treatment (as measured in average length of survival post infection) over established malaria drugs such as artemether, lumefantrine and mefloquine alone.
Publications/Associated Cases: US-2015-0183798; PMC3257372
Dr Posner has an extensive anti-malarial candidate portfolio
