The Synaptic Leap

The Roll Back Malaria Partnership has issued a call for the nomination of participation to the Research & Academia (R&A) Constituency Support Delegation for the Roll Back Malaria Partnership Board. The support delegation contains 10 elected representatives of the wider R&A constituency.
Deadline for receipt of nominations by email rbmboard [at] who.int to the RBM Partnership Secretariat is 23 April 2010.
Download a copy of the Call for Nominations (PDF:90kb)
Download a copy of the (...)

24 March 2010
“Sustaining the Momentum: The importance of partnerships in the fight against malaria”, was the first-ever forum jointly hosted by Medicines for Malaria Venture and Barcelona Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB) in Barcelona, Spain on 15 March 2010.
The continued funding of malaria drug R&D is critical in the fight against malaria and in the effort to ultimately achieve malaria elimination and eradication. The well-attended forum brought together (...)

Despite the last 10 years of raising awareness and working to find new medicines to reduce the devastating effects of malaria - the fight is not over.
These are still the facts:
Malaria kills a child under 5 every 40 seconds.
Of the million malaria deaths, 90% occur in Africa.
Malaria is both a cause and a consequence of poverty.
In order to defeat malaria once and for all and reach the ultimate goal of eradication, your help is needed.
Find out how you can help defeat malaria. (...)

Pierre Hugo joins MMV after spending several years in the pharmaceutical sector, most recently at sanofi-aventis in Johannesburg, as Senior Product Manager for Malaria and Antibiotic Portfolio for Central East Africa.
Prior to that Pierre was with GSK in the UK as Product Strategy Manager for Global Product Strategy (GPS), Diseases of the Developing World (DDW).
Pierre holds an MBA from Bond University in (...)

15 March 2010
MMV has awarded its coveted Project of the Year 2009 to Spiroindolones, a project that shows significant promise as a next generation treatment for malaria. The award is well-deserved as the Spiroindolone class of compounds have not only shown favourable physical and chemical properties for drug development, but most importantly have also exhibited a rapid ability to kill the blood-stages of both P. falciparum and P. vivax. The compound NITD609 is part of this compound class, (...)

February 2010
Plasmodium vivax is the major species of malaria parasite outside Africa. It is especially problematic in that the infection can relapse in the absence of mosquitoes by activation of dormant hypnozoites in the liver. Medicines that target the erythrocytic stages of Plasmodium falciparum are also active against P. vivax, except where these have been compromised by resistance. However, the only clinical therapy against relapse of vivax malaria is the 8-aminoquinoline, (...)

10 March 2010
MMV welcomes the revised “Guidelines for the Treatment of Malaria” published by the World Health Organization (WHO) released on 9 March 2010. Since the release of the first edition in 2006, this book has become the essential reference for all malaria control programmes across the world, providing guidance on procuring safe and efficacious antimalarial medicines as well as evidence-based recommendations on malaria diagnosis. The main changes from the first edition (...)

Tunay brings to MMV her knowledge and experience in humanitarian work in the field and at the headquarters of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies where she most recently served as the Officer Focal Point for West and Central Africa and as the Second Focal Point for the Americas. She has five years of liaison experience in managing relations with governments and international organizations for resource mobilization.
Tunay has an International Diploma in (...)

MAKE A SAFE SECURE DONATION TO MMV using PayPal - VISIT OUR DONATION PAGE. THANK YOU!
MMV extends special thanks to all those individuals who have already sent us such generous donations, whether through the website or by cheque. We greatly appreciate your support.
For those of you who are new to MMV's website:
Please consider supporting the work of MMV. Any contribution, however small, will help us in our work to fight against this deadly disease.
You will be taking a positive step (...)

2010
April 2010
22 April 2010
A Malaria Roundtable Discussion co-organized by GlaxoSmithKline, Medicines for Malaria Venture, the University of Tuebingen / Lambarene as well as the RBM Partnership Secretariat on the occasion of World Malaria Day, on 22 April 2010 in Berlin.
The event is targeting German Parliamentarians who are specialized in international development issues.
Download a copy of the agenda (in German)
MARCH 2010
15 March 2010
MMV Donors' Forum
Organized by MMV and CRESIB (...)

All past and future events can also be viewed at the MMV Calendar section
2010
MARCH 2010
15 March 2010
MMV Donors' Forum
Organized by MMV and CRESIB (Barcelona Center for International Health Research (CRESIB) Hospital Clinic Universitat de Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain
16 March 2010
MMV 24th Board Meeting
Barcelona, Spain

Adrienne brings to MMV several years of communications and web editing experience. Prior to joining MMV she worked for various humanitarian and non-profit organisations including the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Right to Play Uganda and the YWCA of Vancouver.
Adrienne holds a Bachelor of Human Kinetics from the University of British Columbia (Canada) and a Certificate in Marketing Management from the British Columbia (...)

The family of Prof. Dr. Michaela von Freyhold has chosen MMV as the recipient of Memorial Donations in her memory.
MMV is extremely grateful for this kind gesture which emphasizes the invaluable support Prof. von Freyhold provided to MMV in its work in artemisinin and malaria treatment during her lifetime.
Should you wish to make a Memorial Donation - please follow this link and click on the large PayPal button at the bottom of the page
With grateful thanks from all of us at (...)

Medical doctor, specialized in paediatrics.
2007-2010, Global Clinical Program Head, Global Development Oncology, Novartis AG, Switzerland. Previously Medical Head Haematology Region Europe, Novartis. 2004-2006, Director, Global R&D, Clinical Oncology, Pfizer. Prior to that held positions at AstraZeneca as Oncology Medical Advisor and Medical Consultant. Also served as Consultant in the Academic Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology of the University of Turin's Childrens' (...)

The European Foundation Centre (EFC) is organising its first-ever Foundation Week, taking place from 31 May to 4 June 2010 in Brussels, Belgium. The aim of the Week is to connect foundations with policy and decision makers, NGOs, and other stakeholders (from both civil society and other sectors) to both showcase their work and to discuss issues that matter to Europe and its citizens.
Click on the image above to find out more or follow this link www.efc.be/foundationweek
MMV is a member of (...)

*Please note: Recruitment for this position is being handled by The Miles Partnership - see information below
Medicines for Malaria Venture - MMV seeks to hire
Chief Executive Officer - Geneva
The Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) was founded in 1999 as one of the first Public Private Partnerships to address neglected infectious diseases. Funding is provided by Foundations and Trusts, governments, charities, and private corporations. The organization's mandate is to discover and develop (...)

Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV)
8th Call for Letters of Interest
Medicines for Malaria Venture is a not-for-profit organization committed to the discovery, development and delivery of affordable anti-malarial drugs through public-private partnerships. We are looking towards the next generation of molecules which will power the agenda for the eradication of Malaria.
Three areas are highlighted:
(a) The development of new medicines to produce a radical cure by targeting the (...)

CRIMALDDI (Coordination, Rationalisation and Integration of Antimalarial Drug Discovery and Development Initiatives) would like to take this opportunity to invite you to be a part of its online discussion board and welcomes input and ideas from the wider malaria scientific community. For more background on CRIMALDDI see below.
There will be plenty of opportunities for participation in the process as they set various questions for the community to give input and discuss. They would encourage (...)

20 January 2010
For the past 7 years, MMV has partnered with GSK on a number of highly innovative antimalarial projects that include a pipeline of development candidates as well as a new drug for radical cure of P. vivax. We have also collaborated to screen more than 2 million compounds from GSK's library for antimalarial activity. These findings will be made available in the public domain.
“This is a landmark event in the history of antimalarial drug research,” said Dr Chris (...)

A training manual, Supporting Community Responses to Malaria, has recently been published by the STOP MALARIA NOW! advocacy campaign and Community Capacity Building Initiative (CCBI), Nairobi.
This will be an excellent tool for community-based organizations working against malaria and intending to apply for financial assistance from the Global Fund.
Download a copy of the manual (PDF) (...)