MMV and Quotient begin Clinical Trial for Malaria Prevention Injectable

Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and Quotient Sciences have begun the first clinical trial for a long-acting injectable (LAI) preventive compound for malaria. The trial, conducted in healthy volunteers in Nottingham, UK, marks a significant step toward preventing malaria in endemic regions.

According to the World Health Organization, in 2022, there were 249 million malaria cases and 608,000 deaths globally with sub-Saharan Africa bearing 95% of this burden. Innovations in malaria prevention are essential to respond to this ongoing public health crisis. In this trial, MMV371, a derivative of atovaquone — already approved as part of atovaquone-proguanil (Malarone), a medicine widely used by travellers to malaria-endemic areas — is being tested in an injectable form that could provide up to 3 months of protection with a single intramuscular dose.

The clinical trial is evaluating the drug’s safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics, or how the body interacts with the medicine. The final injectable medicine will be a fixed-dose combination of MMV371 and a suitable partner drug — a strategy that reduces the likelihood of inducing resistant strains of malaria parasites. Another compound in MMV’s pipeline, MMV055, is a potential partner drug candidate and is expected to enter clinical development in 2025.

The study is evaluating different dose levels of MMV371 in adult volunteers. If approved, this new product could potentially play a key role in protecting against new infections from all malaria parasite species, including the two most common strains, Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly form of malaria.