About AntiMal

Background

According to the World Health Organisation approximately half of the world's population is at risk of malaria, particularly those living in lower-income countires. There were 247 million cases of malaria in 2006 causing nearly 1 million deaths mostly among African children. Malaria takes an economic toll - cutting economic growth rates by as much as 1.3% in countires with high disease rates. All of these figures are on the increase and a major contributor to this is the lack of effective, safe and affordable drugs to treat this disease.

Summary

AntiMal is an integrated project comprising leading groups of malaria researchers with expertise in malaria biology, chemotherapy and drug development. The aim is to exploit new scientific and political opportunities to secure the development of a portfolio of viable novel antimalarial drugs.

Aim

The goal is to establish a portfolio of new antimalarial drugs from within the European scientific community, and to manage this portfolio through an industry standard, pre-clinical evaluation and select candidates from within the portfolio for progression to ‘first into man’ studies. Ultimately this initiative will produce antimalarial drugs, registered to internationally recognised standards of excellence, which have potential utility in the affordable treatment of malaria within malaria-endemic countries and Europe.