Pyramax to treat malaria

Coartem is the current "gold standard" for people infected with the mosquito-borne disease. The two-in-one Novartis drug needs to be taken twice a day and requires a fatty diet for optimum absorption.
Pyramax from South Korean drugmaker Shin Poong Pharmaceuticals is taken just once daily.
A randomized Phase III study of Pyramax -- a fixed-dose combination of pyronaridine and artesunate -- showed a treatment response of 99.5 percent compared to 99.2 percent among patients on Coartem, which combines artemether and lumefantrine.
Researchers involved in the study wrote in the Lancet medical journal that a three-day course of Pyramax should be considered for inclusion in malaria treatment programs, especially given its low cost of less than $1 for adults and 50 cents for children.
In an accompanying comment, however, Dr Francois Henri Nosten of the Mahidol-Oxford University Tropical Medicine Research Programme said a limitation of the study was that it consisted of many older African children and adults who had probably acquired some malaria immunity.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63L6CD20100422