The facets of TDR research from drug discovery to implementation
First meeting in the Americas region
Product development and testing of new antimalarials
In the city of Manaus, JCB participants also spoke to the investigators of another TDR-funded project that has supported clinical trials to test a new artemisinin-based combination therapy, artemether-lumefantrine (AL), against the former first-line treatment for malaria, quinine-doxicycline. Participants toured laboratories and an outpatient clinic, and heard presentations by scientists affiliated with the Fundação de Medicina Tropical do Amazonas, cosponsors of the research.
Studies in Asia and Africa have already shown that AL is highly effective and well tolerated in adults and children. Results from the recent clinical trials in this area of northern Brazil now provide data for the Americas. The results of the trials indicated that malaria patients administered AL cured faster and with fewer failures than those administered the quinine-doxicycline combination. This has contributed to a change in Brazilian national policy, so that the AL drug combination is now among its recommended antimalarial treatments.
– with reporting by Jamie Guth in Brazil