Dutch life science
public-private partnership organization, Lygature, and Medicines for Malaria
Venture (MMV) Monday announced the establishment of a Netherlands-based
translational research consortium that will target the
development of next-generation medicines to help eradicate malaria.
With funding from the Dutch
government plus co-funding offered by MMV, this large-scale new research
initiative will focus on the early-stage development (hit-to-lead and lead
optimization) of potential drugs for malaria transmission blocking and relapse
prevention. Lygature will manage the Netherlands consortium programme to
maximize its focus on the translation of research results into tangible
antimalarial solutions.
Globally, malaria kills one
child every 2 minutes. However, because it predominantly affects people in the
poorest areas of the world, research into effective ways to cure or prevent the
spread of the disease has typically been under-funded relative to the scale of
the problem.
Building partnerships, such
as the one announced today by Lygature and MMV, offers a solution to the
funding issue and also allows the bridging of any gaps in the required
expertise. Financed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the ’Product
Development Partnership II Fund’, the new consortium will work on researching
malaria drugs for transmission blocking and relapse prevention – widely
regarded as two critical pathways to ultimate eradication of the disease. Among
a wide range of deliverables, the consortium is expected to deliver the
Netherlands’ first antimalarial preclinical drug candidate by the end of the
programme in 2018.
“Malaria is a disease that
predominantly affects some of the poorest areas of the world, and there is a
strong body of evidence suggesting that eradicating the disease would go a long
way towards alleviating that poverty,” says Herman Verheij, Programme Manager
at Lygature. “Thanks to significantly renewed funding from the Dutch government
for research into neglected diseases, this new collaboration with MMV gives us
the opportunity to leverage the Netherlands’ life-science expertise in the
worldwide fight against this devastating disease.”
“One organization alone
cannot defeat malaria. Partnerships are the only way forward,” commented Tim
Wells, Chief Scientific Officer at MMV. “We are extremely pleased to be working
with Lygature so that we can intensify our efforts to combat malaria with Dutch
research expertise as well as funding from The Netherlands. The greater the
number of candidate drugs we can introduce into clinical development, the
higher the chances of building a needs-based antimalarial medicine chest that
will block the spread of malaria, prevent relapsing malaria and save countless
lives.”
Lygature will contribute its
extensive experience in scientific programme management and MMV will contribute
its broad antimalarial drug research and development experience and know-how.
The Netherlands already has significant expertise in malaria research in terms
of assay and drug development, and strong links with African institutes in
malaria-endemic countries.
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