Embargoed until 8a.m., London Time, 29 May 2005
GlaxoSmithKline and University of California, San Francisco Win Medicines for Malaria Venture’s Project of the Year Award
GSK’s Diseases of the Developing World Drug Discovery Unit wins the award in two consecutive years
London, UK; Geneva, Switzerland; Bangkok, Thailand; San Francisco, California; 29 May 2005
Today, the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) announced the winner of its “Project of the Year” award. The Falcipain project, a project with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), was chosen from among 21 projects in MMV’s portfolio for its outstanding progress towards the identification of a novel class of compounds that could become effective antimalarials drugs. This is the second consecutive year that a project at GSK’s Disease of the Developing World Drug Discovery Unit at Tres Cantos, Spain, was selected for this award.
The Falcipain project is one of the four projects in the GSK/MMV 'mini-portfolio' research collaboration (agreed in June 2003) which is working to discover new compounds with promising antimalarial activities. Last year the Pyridones project won the award and its drug candidate is progressing through pre-clinical development.
MMV’s Expert Scientific Advisory Committee selected the Falcipain project for its progress from lead identification into lead optimization, a stage in drug discovery which identifies candidates for development through the coordinated multidisciplinary work of chemists and biologists who prepare and evaluate hundreds of compounds. By the end of the 2004, the project team was able to discover a novel class of compounds with good potency, pharmacokinetics and low potential cost of goods.
Announcing the project of the year selection, Dr. Christopher Hentschel, CEO of MMV said, “We are delighted that we are able to acknowledge GSK and UCSF’s research efforts in antimalarial research by presenting them with this award. This unique partnership highlights the extraordinary progress that can be made when the best of the public and private sector are exploited efficiently and productively. The project team met many challenges during the year but with their talent and hard work, they were able to persevere and impress us with their results. ”
Falcipains are cysteine proteases that, along with other enzymes, enable the malaria parasite to use human haemoglobin from the red blood cell for its own development. Falcipain inhibitors block this process and thereby kill malaria parasites. In 2005, the objective of the project team is to address issues concerning selectivity, resistance and preliminary toxicology with the aim to have a number of candidate compounds from which a drug candidate can be selected in the following year.
MMV established the “Project of the Year” award to recognise the efforts, dedication and contribution of the project team in the fight against malaria. The winner is selected by a committee of twelve world renowned experts in malaria and drug development.
“We are honoured and humbled to be chosen for the second time to receive this award. More than just recognition for the team and their hard work, it is yet another example that the model of Public-Private Partnership really is an efficient way to accelerate research for neglected diseases,” said Dr Federico Gomez de las Heras, Director of the Diseases of the Developing World Drug Discovery Unit at GSK. “The researchers here feel enormous pride in our collaboration with MMV and UCSF, and feel privileged to be able to contribute to the development of life-saving treatments for malaria.”
“We are delighted that this project has been selected as the Project of the Year particularly with so many other great projects in MMV’s portfolio” said Dr. Philip Rosenthal, Professor of Medicine at UCSF and project leader of the Falcipain project. “As an academic research institute, we would never have had the resources and broad expertise to carry forward this project had it not been for this unique partnership with GSK and MMV. We are convinced that it is critical for the future of antimalarial research and development that such partnerships be fostered and sustained.”
MMV, a not-for-profit organisation, operates as a public-private partnership (PPP) that seeks to discover, develop and deliver new antimalarial drugs. It is now managing the largest portfolio of malaria drug research in history with more than 20 projects in different stages of development. Its partners include over 40 academic institutes, biotech firms and pharmaceutical companies around the world.
The GSK/MMV “mini-portfolio” research collaboration is the first of such a portfolio management model between a PPP and an industry partner. Such an approach has the added advantage of conducting drug discovery with a partner who has the flexibility to move resources across the portfolio to the most promising projects, such as the Falcipain project. The result is that a promising project can move faster, and can more rapidly lead to a future antimalarial drug.
Although malaria is a curable disease if promptly diagnosed and properly treated, it is still causing more than 1 million deaths every year. Its resurgence since the late 1970’s is mainly due to multi-drug resistance. The efficacy of the most commonly available treatments such as chloroquine and SP* is compromised by resistance. Today, there are more cases of malaria in Africa than any time in recorded history. Beyond the human toll, malaria costs Africa at least US$12 billion in lost GDP and consumes an estimate 40% of the public health spending.
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* SP is known fully as sulfadoxine pyrimethamine
About MMV
Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to reducing the burden of malaria in disease-endemic countries by discovering, developing and delivering new affordable antimalarial drugs through effective public-private partnership. Together with some 300 researchers and scientists around the world, MMV is working on the largest portfolio of malaria drug research in history. Its goal is to register at least one new antimalarial drug before 2010 and maintain a sustainable pipeline of antimalarials to meet the needs of the 2.4 billion people at risk of malaria in the poorest regions of the world. For more information, please visit: http://www.mmv.org
About GSK
GlaxoSmithKline - one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies - is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.
GSK is committed to playing a leading role in addressing the healthcare crisis in the developing world. GSK believes it is the only company researching new vaccines and treatments for all three of the WHO’s priority diseases in the developing world – HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB. GSK has 16 clinical development programmes for diseases of relevance to the developing world and a number of pre clinical projects. For more information on GSK’s R&D for diseases of the developing world please see: http://science.gsk.com/about/disease.htm
About UCSF
The University of California, San Francisco is one of the world's premier health sciences universities, a leader in biomedical research, patient care, higher education and public service. Thirty four UCSF faculty scientists are members of the National Academy of Sciences, three have won Nobel prizes and 17 are investigators in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, among the highest number of these prestigious biomedical research posts for any university. With 18,000 faculty and staff, UCSF has an annual budget of about $1.9 billion and is San Francisco's second largest employer. The UCSF Medical Center is consistently ranked among the top ten in the country. Please visit: http://www.ucsf.edu
Contact:
Anna Wang
Communications Officer
Medicines for Malaria Venture
Geneva, Switzerland
+41 (79) 204 2875 (Mobile)
Gwenan Evans
Director, Science Communications
GlaxoSmithKline
London UK
+44 20 8047 5505
Wallace Ravven
UCSF New Services
San Francisco, California
USA
+1 415 476 2557