Liverpool University scientists develop pioneering antimalarial drug

Pioneering research at the University of Liverpool in the UK has led to the development of a new drug to treat Plasmodium Falciparum malaria - the most life-threatening malaria parasite, which kills between one and two million people every year.

Developed specifically for use in sub-Saharan Aftrica, Lapdap (chlorproguanil hydrochloride/dapsone), which has been approved by the UK Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), will be marketed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

Data from the Phase III clinical trial conducted in sub-Saharan Africa demonstrated that, overall, chlorproguanil hydrochloride/dapsone achieved significantly higher cure rates compared with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (S/P) (96% vs. 89%; p<0.001) and was well tolerated. The most common adverse event associated with Lapdap was anaemia that only occurred in a small proportion of patients and was of limited duration.

The new drug has a short half-life, which creates a short resistance selection window, which should help to preserve its antimalarial efficacy and make it a valuable addition to the range of antimalarial drugs used in sub-Saharan Africa. The malaria strategy recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for Africa to further increase efficacy and reduce resistance, is to use antimalarials in combination with artemisinin. The development of Lapdap in a fixed dose artimisinin combination is under way.

GSK plans to make Lapdap available at preferential prices across sub-Saharan Africa as soon as local approval has been granted. The Certificate of Pharmaceutical Products (CPP) provided by the MHRA is required by most of the African regulatory authorities in their local approval process.

Lapdap has been developed through a unique public-private partnership between the Tropical Disease Research Programme (TDR) of the World Health Organisation (WHO), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the UK government's Department for International Development (DFID), the University of Liverpool, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and African researchers, with initial support by an early grant from the Wellcome Trust.

Professor Peter Winstanley, director of the Wellcome Trust Tropical Centre at The University of Liverpool, who led development work, said: 'Drugs used as first-line treatment in uncomplicated P.falciparum malaria, such as S/P, are failing because of increasing parasite resistance. Lapdap can help us meet the urgent need for an affordable antimalaria treatment for use in Africa, as it has been shown to work in cases where S/P has failed.