Generic drugs online

Source: Visit Bulgaria

Date: 6-Sep-2010

Author: Marina Dimova

US National Institutes of Health are reported to have discovered a new experimental drug capable of curing malaria with one, single dose,

Malaria is spread by mosquitoes biting people at night to feed on their blood and infecting them with the parasite. However, NITD609, a new drug discovered by an international team of scientists, has been found to be an effective treatment against two of the most common parasites responsible for malaria.

In their study on mice, they found the drug to target a different parasite protein than other anti-malarial drugs, requiring only one oral dose to clear the tropical disease.

A single dose cure addresses the unmet medical need for malaria, with researchers looking forward to seeing how this compound performed in clinical trials.

NITD609 has certain properties that allow it to be manufactured in pill form in large number of quantities.

Researchers say if NITD609 is found to behave similarly in humans as it did on the mice, it would make it possible to develop it into a drug to be taken just once. The malaria drugs available now have to be taken between one and four times a day for an entire week.

According to the study published in the journal Science, the new drug found to be effective when tested on a small number of mice, could see human trials backed by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG, begin later this year.

The malaria parasite causes fever, joint pain and death. According to the WHO, last year, there were an estimated 240 million cases of malaria, and of total deaths, 91% occurred in Africa, 85% of which were children under five.

In 2009, malaria deaths world-wide fell to 836,000 from over one million a few years earlier, including declines in Eritrea, Rwanda, Zambia and Zanzibar. Over the past decade, malaria cases has fallen in nine countries in Africa and 29 other countries.