Collaboration will develop a protective medicine for children living at high risk of malaria.

Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) has established a new collaboration with S Kant HEALTHCARE Ltd an Indian-based pharmaceutical company, for the development of a dispersible, taste-masked formulation of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and amodiaquine (SP+AQ) for seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) in the Sahel region in Africa.

The collaboration has been entered into with the aim of achieving WHO-prequalification of SP+AQ in 2017, and was established under the UNITAID-funded project ACCESS-SMC.1 The project is led by Malaria Consortium in partnership with Catholic Relief Services and other partners, including MMV, and is supporting National Malaria Control Programmes to scale-up access to SMC across seven countries in the Sahel. By demonstrating the feasibility and impact of SMC at scale, ACCESS-SMC will promote the intervention’s wider adoption.

‘‘This new collaboration is an example of MMV’s commitment to develop high-quality medicines adapted to the needs of the most vulnerable patient populations,” said Dr David Reddy, MMV’s CEO. ‘‘A child-friendly formulation of SP+AQ will help improve compliance to treatment and in turn enhance the impact of this important protective medicine.’’

Mr Bharat Shah, MD of S Kant HEALTHCARE Ltd said: “We are happy to collaborate with MMV on this important project. Prevention is better than cure, and when it comes to high child mortality due to malaria, interventions to reduce disease are critical. Our goal remains to fight malaria in every possible region globally. Developing a child-friendly, palatable and cost-efficient formulation of SP+AQ for use in the sub-Saharan African/Sahel region shall help to advance the cause of defeating malaria.”

1 ACCESS-SMC: Achieving Catalytic Expansion of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention in the Sahel is a 3-year project and includes among its implementers the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Centre de Support de Santé International, Management Sciences for Health, Medicines for Malaria Venture and Speak Up Africa.

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• Related Website: http://www.access-smc.org