Malaria drug could save millions.

Byline: LAURA DAVIS 

SCIENTISTS in Liverpool have developed a new treatment for a tropical disease that kills up to 2mpeople a year.

They are working on a new generation of drugs to treat malaria, the illness spread by mosquitoes in mainly poverty-striken regions.

Liverpool University has been awarded a pounds 400,000 grant to create the treatment for a strain of malaria called Plasmodium Falciparum which kills between 1mand 2mpeople each year.

The treatment was created by adding a third ingredient to Lapdap,a drug created by the Liverpool scientists currently being manufactured by pharmaceutical giant Glaxo SmithKline.

The new drug,known as CDA, clears disease- carrying parasites from the patients'blood stream more rapidly and reduces the risk of them developing a resistance.

Prof Peter Winstanley, who carried out the laboratory and clinical work, said:``Existing treatments are failing because of increasing parasite-resistance.

``New treatments for malaria are urgently needed.

``Lapdap has now been registered and we anticipate that CDA will be a further advance.

``We hope that CDA will be inexpensive.''

Clinical trials are already under way on around 200 patients in Malawi,central Africa, to determine the best dose of each component of the drug.

If successful, the treatment will be sold to malaria endemic countries at a low price to ensure it will reach those in need.

If targets are met, the team will be ready to apply to the drugs regulatory body by 2006 for permission to produce it in large quantities.

Malaria is passed to humans by a tiny parasite that grows inside mosquitos. Both CDA and Lapdap only stay in the body for a short time so the parasite is not in contact with it for long enough to develop resistance.

Whereas traces of the cheapest brand of anti-malariadrugs,SP, can still be detected in blood a month after it was administered. This means the creature can become immune to the drug.

The disease kills more than 1m children in Africa alone every year and can take just 48 hours to be fatal.

The grant was awarded by the UK Department of International Development.

The product development team was led by Prof Winstanley with Dr Bill Watkins,of Liverpool University,Prof Steve Ward,of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine,and Prof Brian Greenwood,of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.