KAE609 shows promise as next generation treatment for malaria

Novartis International AG / KAE609 shows promise as next generation treatment for malaria . Processed and transmitted by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

• KAE609 is the first antimalarial drug candidate with a novel mechanism of action to achieve positive clinical proof-of-concept in over 20 years
   
• KAE609 was tested in adult patients with uncomplicated malaria and showed a median parasite clearance time of 12 hours, including in patients with resistant infections[1] 
   
• For more than a decade, Novartis has been a leader in the fight against malaria, setting the current gold standard for treatment and building one of the strongest malaria pipelines in the industry

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Basel, Switzerland, July 30, 2014 - Today, Novartis published clinical trial results in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that KAE609 (cipargamin), a novel and potent antimalarial drug candidate, cleared the parasite rapidly in Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) and Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) uncomplicated malaria patients[1]. Novartis currently has two drug candidates in development. Both KAE609 and KAF156 are new classes of anti-malarial compounds that treat malaria in different ways from current therapies, important to combat emerging drug resistance. Novartis has also identified PI4K as a new drug target with potential to prevent, block and treat malaria.

"Novartis is in the fight against malaria for the long term and we are committed to the continued research and development of new therapies to eventually eliminate the disease," said Joseph Jimenez, CEO of Novartis. "With two compounds and a new drug target currently under investigation, Novartis has one of the strongest malaria pipelines in the industry."

Malaria is a life-threatening disease primarily caused by parasites (P. falciparum and P. vivax) transmitted to people through the bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. Each year it kills more than 600,000 people, most of them African children[2].

"KAE609 is a potential game-changing therapy in the fight against malaria," said Thierry Diagana, Head of the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD), which aims to discover novel treatments and prevention methods for major tropical diseases. "Novartis has given KAE609 priority project status because of its unique potential of administering it as a single-dose combination therapy."