Sanofi has announced plans to extend its collaboration with Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) to jointly develop a new single, fixed-dose combination therapy for malaria. The collaboration began in May 2011 with a three-year research project agreement to develop drug candidates from Sanofi compounds selected for their potential activity against the parasites that cause one of the world’s deadliest diseases.

At each stage, Sanofi said, the project has been evaluated by a joint steering committee applying MMV's criteria for compound progression. Up to now, the collaboration has yielded two potential treatments, OZ439/Piperaquine and OZ439/Ferroquine, each of which is a single, fixed-dose combination therapy independent of artemisinin.

Extension of the joint project work, the pharmaceutical producer said, will allow phase 2b trials for OZ439/Ferroquine to begin this summer. OZ439/Piperaquine is currently in a phase 2b clinical trial. At the end of phase 2b, steering committee will determine if either of the two combinations meet the criteria for advancement to phase 3 trials.

Sanofi points out that resistance to currently used artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT) has been increasing in Southeast Asia and has created a growing concern that drug resistance could spread to Africa, where about 90% of the estimated 584,000 annual deaths from malaria occur.

In addition to addressing growing treatment resistance, the company said artemisinin-independent therapies could greatly increase healthcare professionals' ability to access and treat patients in endemic countries where compliance is a key concern.

The new combination therapies will be administered in a single-dose, which is said to represent an improvement in administration over the three-day courses used for ACT therapies. The efficacy of these single-dose administrations will be evaluated and compared to ACT existing treatments.