The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7253 p820
14 June 2003

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Low-cost therapy promising in malaria

A new combination drug for the treatment of malaria is "cheap and effective and very promising for employment in developing countries", according to Dr Phan Trong Giao, Cho Ray Hospital, Vietnam. He reported trial results for CV8 — a combination of dihydroartemisinin, piperaquine, trimethoprim and primaquine — at the recent European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Glasgow.

In an area in Vietnam with multidrug resistant malaria, Dr Giao's group carried out a randomised open trial of CV8 versus atovaquone plus proguanil (Malarone) in 161 patients. Patients received either four doses of CV8 or three doses of Malarone over three days. They were followed up for one month.

Tolerance to both study drugs was good and all patients recovered rapidly, Dr Giao reported. The average parasite clearance time was about 35 hours for both combinations, and fevers cleared in about 24 hours with both treatments. There were no significant differences between the two regimens with respect to tolerance, cure rate or parasitic dynamics.

Dr Giao said that antimalarial combinations with dihydroartemisinin and piperaquine show promise for use in developing countries. He added that the treatment cost would be about €1 (71p) per course.