Malaria
Since April 2001, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended the use of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs)¹ for the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum malaria
Following these recommendations Dafra Pharma International is proud to present its R&D achievements:
ACTs ensure the highest cure rates and have the potential to reduce the spread of drug resistance. They are now generally considered as the best current treatment for uncomplicated falciparum malaria.
An antimalarial combination therapy is the simultaneous use of two or more blood schizontocidal drugs with independent modes of action and thus unrelated
biochemical targets in the parasite. The concept is based on the potential of two or more simultaneously administered schizontocidal drugs with independent modes of action to improve therapeutic efficacy and also to delay the development of resistance to the individual components of the combination.
The rationale for combining antimalarials with different modes of action is twofold:
- The combination is often more effective
- In the rare event that a mutant parasite that is resistant to one of the drugs arises de novo during the course of the infection, the parasite will be killed by the other drug. This mutual protection is thought to prevent or delay the emergence of resistance.
To realize the two advantages, the partner drugs in a combination must be independently effective²
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