The MoU remains subject to signing of a definitive agreement, the companies said.

Malaria is a serious health challenge that has a disproportionate prevalence in vulnerable populations of low-income countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an alarming number of 249 million malaria cases and 608,000 cases of malaria death were reported in 2022. It has been widely reported that climate change will increase the incidences of such vector-borne diseases. With this collaboration, the companies intend to drive a comprehensive research and development agenda to leverage their strengths and accelerate the program.

Under the MoU, Kainomyx is to lead the technical strategy and associated aspects for drug discovery and clinical phases, while Aurigene will focus on developing cost-effective and scalable drug chemistry. While the program evolves, Dr. Reddy’s intends to bring in its regulatory and market access expertise.

Deepak Sapra, CEO of API and Services at Dr. Reddy’s, said: “Public health and access is a strategic area for us and malaria continues to be a very important disease that needs innovative as well as affordable medicines. The MoU with Kainomyx is a promising step in that direction and towards improving global health outcomes and delivering on Dr. Reddy’s vision to reach 1.5 billion patients by 2030.”

Akhil Ravi, Aurigene’s CEO, added: “We are excited to collaborate with Dr. Spudich and the Kainomyx team given their expertise in bringing innovative medicines to market. We share the same vision of addressing global health issues by serving neglected populations.”

James Spudich, executive chairman of Kainomyx, commented: “New drug discovery for Malaria and other parasitic diseases is essential because drug resistance to existing therapeutics is rapidly developing. Through our decades of work, we have developed a deep understanding of how cytoskeletal proteins work. Cytoskeletal proteins are essential for all living organisms, and we are exploiting this to specifically target the cytoskeleton for treatment of Malaria.”