Latest news with #Hegemann
Euronews
08-07-2025
- Health
- Euronews
Swiss regulator approves first malaria treatment for newborn babies
Switzerland's drug regulator has approved the world's first malaria treatment for newborn babies, clearing the way for the medicine to become available in parts of Africa where the life-threatening disease is endemic. In a late-stage clinical trial, pharmaceutical giant Novartis showed the drug was safe and effective for babies weighing less than five kilograms, which they typically reach by two months of age. Traditionally, these infants have been given either a full or half-dose of the antimalarial drug intended for babies six months or older. But because newborns do not process medicines the same way, there is a higher risk of side effects. The lack of specialised treatment – and the fact that babies are not vaccinated until they are around five months old – has left the youngest infants relatively unprotected against malaria, a mosquito-borne disease that kills about 597,000 people per year. Most deaths are among children under five years old in Africa. It's not clear exactly how many babies are affected, but in 2023, there were an estimated 36 million pregnancies in 33 African countries where malaria is widespread. About one in three mothers were infected with malaria while pregnant, raising the risk that they will pass the disease along to their newborns, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 'Every one of those [babies] is a potential target for malaria infection,' Dr Lutz Hegemann, president of Novartis' global health programme, told Euronews Health. 'We don't want to leave any patient behind, no matter how small they are'. Eight African countries – Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda – are expected to quickly approve the medicine as part of a partnership with Swissmedic, the Swiss drugs regulator. Hegemann said Novartis hopes to roll the medicine out there this autumn, with more countries to follow, on a not-for-profit basis. The medicine, known as Coartem Baby, is similar to Novartis' existing drug to treat uncomplicated malaria in young children, but it has a different dose and ratio of ingredients to prevent side effects in the youngest infants. It also has a sweet cherry flavour and can be dissolved in breast milk to make it easier to give to patients. 'These are small changes, but big steps,' Dr Quique Bassat, head of the Barcelona Institute of Global Health, told Euronews Health. While the number of newborns with malaria 'still remains relatively modest in terms of the overall burden, those cases need to be treated, and therefore we need better drugs,' he added. 'Now we have something which is perfectly suitable for that specific age group where there was a gap'. Bassat advised Novartis on the clinical trial, which was funded by the European Union and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
The Hindu
12-05-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Novartis to keep making malaria drugs if orders dry up amid aid cuts
Swiss drugmaker Novartis will keep making medicines for malaria and leprosy, even if it does not get orders as normal amid the global health funding crunch, its president of global health told Reuters in an interview. Ensuring availability of life-saving medicines The company makes 28 million malaria treatment courses every year, and sells almost all of them a not-for-profit price to countries and groups including the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), a U.S.-government funded initiative that still has an unclear future given President Donald President Trump's vast international aid cuts, although it did receive an exemption for some work earlier this year because of its lifesaving potential. "We are not going to be the bottleneck," said Lutz Hegemann, president, Global Health and Sustainability, Novartis, in an interview. "We are not going to produce based on demand, because we know that these medicines are needed, and we need to be creative in finding ways to get them from the factory to patients." Earlier this year, an order was cancelled by a contractor for PMI when it got a stop-work order from the U.S. government, Dr. Hegemann said. But then within a month it got an exception and asked for work to begin again. "You cannot do that essentially in real-time. We remain committed to our volume," said Dr. Hegemann, adding that this also applied for leprosy, which it donates in smaller quantities through the World Health Organization (WHO). Funding gap and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria is the biggest buyer of Novartis' antimalarials. It has not yet faced cuts but is fundraising now for its future work in a difficult climate. Speaking in London, Hegemann also urged the pharmaceutical sector to step up while governments, including the U.S., United Kingdom and France, pull back from aid funding, and particularly work more directly with governments that have traditionally been recipients of aid. "I think it would be a missed opportunity if we just tried to essentially plug the gap that donor country funding has created, and I think we need to move beyond that," he said, pointing to public-private partnerships between pharmaceutical companies and low and middle-income countries as a model. Dr. Hegemann also said Novartis is set to spend almost double what it pledged to by the end of 2025 on malaria and neglected tropical diseases research and development: $490m rather than its pledged $250m. Products in development include a dengue antiviral, new treatments for leishmaniasis and Chagas disease, and the first malaria treatment for newborn babies.
