Glaxo anti-malarial drug approved

Drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline has won UK approval for its latest anti-malarial drug, paving the way for it to be made available in Africa.

Glaxo spokesman Chris Hunter-Ward said the drug was expected to become available in seven African countries by the end of the firm's financial year.

He added that UK approval for the treatment was needed as "a lot of African countries do not have a process for approving" new medicines.

Lapdap - which combines two existing treatments - will be used to treat the most life-threatening malaria parasite, which kills between one and two million people a year.

Local approval

Countries that have pre-approved Lapdap Benin Congo Democratic Republic of Congo Guinea Niga Malawi Zimbabwe

Mr Hunter-Ward said approval from the Medicines Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MRHA) is part of the regional regulatory process covering drugs in African countries.

Lapdap will be distributed to companies in Africa as soon as the regulators approve its local use.

The drug will be subject to "not for profit pricing" Mr Hunter-Ward added.

More countries may take up the drug later.

Drug resistance

Experts have been working to develop new anti-malarial drugs for use in sub-Saharan Africa, where strains of the disease that are resistant to existing treatments have emerged.

Lapdap was developed through a public private partnership between Glaxo, the World Health Organisation, and other agencies.

Professor Peter Winstanley, Director of the Wellcome Trust Tropical Centre at the University of Liverpool, helped develop Lapdap.

He said it could "help us meet the urgent need for affordable anti-malarial treatment for use in Africa".

The new drug has a short half-life, he added, which means there is less of a risk of people developing resistance to it.