Switzerland's Medicines for Malaria Receives Gates Foundation Award

Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV, Geneva, Switzerland) - a not-for-profit public-private partnership- has received its fifth and largest grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will fund MMV's R&D pipeline to the tune of an additional $115 million over the next 5 years. The award brings the venture's cumulative funding - from government agencies, private  foundations, international organizations, and corporate foundations - to $470 million.

MMV employs the whole gamut of drugs and healthcare devices in its plight to eradicate malaria, from vaccines and diagnostics to insecticide-treated bed-nets.

Dr Timothy Wells, MMV’s CSO commented on the Gates award: “This funding arrives at a critical time for us. Over the last few months, with our partners we have launched a high-quality antimalarial designed specially for children (Coartem Dispersible), submitted another antimalarial to the EMEA for regulatory approval (Eurartesim), and are in the process of collating the regulatory dossier for a third antimalarial (Pyramax).  [But] with the emergence of resistance to Artemisinin in Cambodia, it’s clear that the ambitious goal of malaria eradication will require a wide range of new medicines."