Malaria breakthrough an international collaboration

Monash is at the forefront of the search for an effective cure for malaria, which would relieve millions of people of suffering in some of the world’s poorest nations.

Associate Professor Susan Charman

Each year, malaria kills over one million people and more than 500 million people in Africa, Asia and South America suffer its debilitating effects.

Despite the cost of the disease in human terms, research and development investment from the major pharmaceutical companies has been limited by estimates of low commercial returns.

The malaria parasite has also become resistant to many antimalarial drugs. In animal models of malaria new fully-synthetic, peroxide antimalarials can kill the drug-resistant parasites with a single dose.

The new drugs being developed by the project team would be more affordable and more effective than current treatments, which require a three-day course of drugs. The Monash group is collaborating with chemists and biologists in the US and Switzerland.

Phase 1 clinical trials have been successfully completed and human studies are planned for 2009.

Associate Professor Susan Charman is Director of Monash University’s Centre for Drug Candidate Optimisation, a group that identifies and develops new drugs for clinical trials.

The research centre was established in January 2003, following the award of an A$4 million competitive grant from the Victorian government. The Centre undertakes collaborative studies for biotech companies and not-for-profit research institutes.

More information

• Research at Monash
• Monash University Centre for Drug Candidate Optimisation
• Victorian College of Pharmacy