Malaria unit
Malaria treatment
Today, artemisinin is the last defense against drug-resistant malaria. Recent reports suggest that decades of continuous use of these potent antimalarials as monotherapies may have fostered artemisinin drug resistance in Plasmodium. Unfortunately there are few ongoing efforts to discover and develop novel and effective antimalarial drugs.
NITD research consortium
To address this unmet global health need, NITD has led the formation of a research consortium that brings together cutting-edge drug discovery at Novartis with world-class malaria biology expertise. Armed with a grant from the Wellcome Trust, the Medicines for Malaria Venture and the Singapore Economic Development Board, the consortium has the ambitious goals of identifying:
- New drugs with a potential for a single-dose cure for P. falciparum malaria;
- A curative modality for P. vivax malaria.
These two goals were set to address two weaknesses with the current antimalarials: poor patient compliance and the inability to rapidly and safely eradicate the parasite liver stages following a P. vivax infection.
Read more about the Malaria unit drug discovery portfolio and collaborators
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Neglected diseases
We aim to discover new treatments and prevention methods for major tropical diseases. Learn more about the main tropical diseases:
Access to Medicines
In developing countries, access to medicines is limited - and we want to be a leader and partner in finding and implementing solutions to help close the access gap.
Read about what Novartis is doing to improve access to medicines
Case studies
In 13 African countries, an initiative started by the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development with Swiss and Swedish development agencies helps children affected by HIV/AIDS.