Pyronaridine/artesunate included in the list of WHO prequalified medicines

The WHO prequalification programme has added Pyramax®, the fixed-dose combination of pyronaridine and artesunate, to its list of approved medicines. This once daily, 3-day treatment is indicated for acute, uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum and blood-stage Plasmodium vivax malaria in adults and children over 20 kg. It is the first ACT to be approved by a stringent regulatory authority for the treatment of both of these two main species of malaria.

Read the MMV report

A recently-reported, head-to-head phase 3, open-label study showed that pyronaridine-artesunate was noninferior to mefloquine plus artesunate for the primary outcome: adequate clinical and parasitologic response in the per-protocol population on day 28, corrected for reinfection with the use of polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) genotyping.

Link to the N Eng J Medicine article