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Malaria medicines: a glass half full?
Timothy N C Wells1, Rob Hooft van Huijsduijnen1, Wesley C Van Voorhis2
1Medicines for Malaria Venture, 20 Route de Pré-Bois, 1215 Geneva 15, Switzerland.
Nature Reviews. Drug Discovery
|May 23, 2015
Summary
New antimalarial drugs are crucial to combat resistance and treat malaria effectively. This review examines the drug discovery pipeline over the last decade to identify progress and future priorities.
Area of Science:
- Malariology
- Drug Discovery
- Parasitology
Background:
- Malaria remains a significant global health issue, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths annually.
- Existing treatments, like artemisinin-based therapies, face growing resistance.
- There is a critical need for novel antimalarial drugs targeting various parasite life stages and vulnerable populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review advancements in the antimalarial drug discovery pipeline over the past 10 years.
- To assess progress and identify gaps in developing new antimalarial compounds.
- To recommend priorities for future antimalarial drug development.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of the antimalarial drug discovery landscape.
- Grouping of compounds and products by target profiles.
- Evaluation of progress and identification of research gaps.
Main Results:
- The antimalarial drug discovery pipeline has evolved significantly in the last decade.
- Progress has been made in developing drugs with diverse mechanisms of action.
- Gaps remain in addressing resistance, transmission blocking, and targeting dormant liver stages.
Conclusions:
- Continued innovation in antimalarial drug discovery is essential.
- Future efforts should prioritize novel compounds targeting resistant strains and transmission.
- Addressing dormant liver-stage parasites is a key challenge for complete malaria eradication.
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