• DNDi_Logo_No-Tagline_Full Colour
  • Our work
    • Diseases
      • Sleeping sickness
      • Visceral leishmaniasis
      • Cutaneous leishmaniasis
      • Chagas disease
      • Filaria: river blindness
      • Mycetoma
      • Paediatric HIV
      • Cryptococcal meningitis
      • Hepatitis C
      • Dengue
      • Pandemic preparedness
      • Antimicrobial resistance
    • Research & development
      • R&D portfolio & list of projects
      • Drug discovery
      • Translational research
      • Clinical trials
      • Registration & access
      • Treatments delivered
    • Advocacy
      • Open and collaborative R&D
      • Transparency of R&D costs
      • Pro-access policies and IP
      • Children’s health
      • Gender equity
      • Climate change
      • AI and new technologies
  • Networks & partners
    • Partnerships
      • Our partners
      • Partnering with us
    • Global networks
      • Chagas Platform
      • Dengue Alliance
      • HAT Platform
      • LEAP Platform
      • redeLEISH Network
    • DNDi worldwide
      • DNDi Switzerland
      • DNDi DRC
      • DNDi Eastern Africa
      • DNDi Japan
      • DNDi Latin America
      • DNDi North America
      • DNDi South Asia
      • DNDi South-East Asia
  • News & resources
    • News & stories
      • News
      • Stories
      • Statements
      • Viewpoints
      • Social media
      • eNews Newsletter
    • Press
      • Press releases
      • In the media
      • Podcasts, radio & TV
      • Media workshops
    • Resources
      • Scientific articles
      • Our publications
      • Videos
    • Events
  • About us
    • About
      • Who we are
      • How we work
      • Our strategy
      • Our donors
      • Annual reports
      • Our prizes and awards
      • Our story: 20 years of DNDi
    • Our people
      • Our leadership
      • Our governance
      • Contact us
    • Work with us
      • Working at DNDi
      • Job opportunities
      • Requests for proposal
  • Donate
  • DNDi_Logo_No-Tagline_Full Colour
  • Our work
    • Diseases
      • Sleeping sickness
      • Visceral leishmaniasis
      • Cutaneous leishmaniasis
      • Chagas disease
      • Filaria: river blindness
      • Mycetoma
      • Paediatric HIV
      • Cryptococcal meningitis
      • Hepatitis C
      • Dengue
      • Pandemic preparedness
      • Antimicrobial resistance
    • Research & development
      • R&D portfolio & list of projects
      • Drug discovery
      • Translational research
      • Clinical trials
      • Registration & access
      • Treatments delivered
    • Advocacy
      • Open and collaborative R&D
      • Transparency of R&D costs
      • Pro-access policies and IP
      • Children’s health
      • Gender equity
      • Climate change
      • AI and new technologies
  • Networks & partners
    • Partnerships
      • Our partners
      • Partnering with us
    • Global networks
      • Chagas Platform
      • Dengue Alliance
      • HAT Platform
      • LEAP Platform
      • redeLEISH Network
    • DNDi worldwide
      • DNDi Switzerland
      • DNDi DRC
      • DNDi Eastern Africa
      • DNDi Japan
      • DNDi Latin America
      • DNDi North America
      • DNDi South Asia
      • DNDi South-East Asia
  • News & resources
    • News & stories
      • News
      • Stories
      • Statements
      • Viewpoints
      • Social media
      • eNews Newsletter
    • Press
      • Press releases
      • In the media
      • Podcasts, radio & TV
      • Media workshops
    • Resources
      • Scientific articles
      • Our publications
      • Videos
    • Events
  • About us
    • About
      • Who we are
      • How we work
      • Our strategy
      • Our donors
      • Annual reports
      • Our prizes and awards
      • Our story: 20 years of DNDi
    • Our people
      • Our leadership
      • Our governance
      • Contact us
    • Work with us
      • Working at DNDi
      • Job opportunities
      • Requests for proposal
  • Donate
Home > Press releases

DNDi Welcomes WHO’s Call to Halt Malaria Monotherapy

Geneva , Switzerland — 20 Jan 2005

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) welcomes the warning issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) to stop selling artemisinin as a monotherapy for malaria, and thus, to prevent the development of resistance to the drug.

It is a timely warning and will encourage the international community to treat malaria with medicines that actually work.“These new guidelines are vital to ensuring that patients receive effective medications now and in the future,” said Dr. Bernard Pecoul, Executive Director of DNDi. “While the world waits for new drugs for malaria, fixed-dose artesunate combinations are the way forward. With their greater availability, the issue of curing patients is now not just technical or medical, but political.” Two new fixed-dose, artemisinin-based combination therapies (FACTs) – artesunateamodiaquine (AS/AQ) and artesunate-mefloquine (AS/MQ) – have been developed by DNDi and will be available by the end of this year. These tablets, which will join Novartis’ Coartem as FACTs available to patients, offer patients greater choice and will cost approximately 50% less compared to current ACTs. DNDi’s innovative FACT Project has brought together academic, public and private partners from around the world. Europe ‘s leading drugmaker, sanofi-aventis, will develop AS/AQ for sub-Saharan Africa and Indonesia; and Farmanguinhos, the public pharmaceutical branch of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, will produce AS/MQ for Latin America.

To date, 43 sub-Saharan countries have adopted ACTs in their malaria treatment protocols, but only 15 have actually begun to implement the change, and only a handful have done so on a national level. WHO’s call will encourage the others to actively pursue the implementation of ACTs.

See the WHO press release on the net:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr02/en/index.html

PDF version (english) of this press release

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) is an independent, not-for-profit drug development initiative established in 2003 by MSF and six other founding partners, including public sector research institutions from Brazil, Kenya, Malaysia, and India as well as the Institut Pasteur in France and the World Health Organization’s Tropical Diseases Research (TDR) program. With a current portfolio of 20 projects, DNDi aims to develop new, improved, and field-relevant drugs for neglected diseases – such as leishmaniasis, human African trypanosomiasis, and Chagas disease – that afflict the very poor in developing countries. DNDi also raises awareness about the need for greater R&D for neglected diseases and strengthens existing research capacity in disease-endemic countries. For further information, please consult www.dndi.org

For more information, contact DNDi’s Ann-Marie SEVCSIK at amsevcsik@dndi.org ;
1-646-258-8131 or +41 (0)79 814 9147)

Malaria

Read, watch, share

Loading...
Press releases
1 Jul 2025

Thailand’s Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) partners with DNDi and Pharco to register an effective and affordable hepatitis C treatment  

Press releases
13 Jun 2025

Serum Institute of India signs a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with DNDi to advance the development of a new treatment for dengue in low- and middle-income countries

Press releases
13 Jun 2025

K-MEDI and DNDi have initiated collaborative R&D to develop a treatment for neglected diseases

News
6 Jun 2025

DNDi is partnering with Médecins Sans Frontières South Asia for the Without Borders Media Fellowship 2025 

News
5 Jun 2025

Meet the DNDi Eastern Africa 2024-2025 Media Fellows

Press releases
5 Jun 2025

Colombia becomes first country to recommend rapid tests to diagnose Chagas disease

Statements
27 May 2025

DNDi interventions at the 78th World Health Assembly

Press releases
22 May 2025

Six African nations commit to eliminate deadly neglected disease visceral leishmaniasis

VIEW ALL

Help neglected patients

To date, we have delivered thirteen new treatments, saving millions of lives.

Our goal is to deliver 25 new treatments in our first 25 years. You can help us get there. 

GIVE NOW
Linkedin-in Instagram Twitter Facebook-f Youtube
International non-profit developing safe, effective, and affordable treatments for the most neglected patients.

Learn more

  • Diseases
  • Neglected tropical diseases
  • R&D portfolio
  • Policy advocacy

Get in touch

  • Our offices
  • Contact us
  • Integrity Line

Support us

  • Donate
  • Subscribe to eNews

Work with us

  • Join research networks
  • Jobs
  • RFPs
  • Terms of Use   
  •   Acceptable Use Policy   
  •   Privacy Policy   
  •   Cookie Policy   
  •   Our policies   

  • Except for images, films and trademarks which are subject to DNDi’s Terms of Use, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Switzerland License