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ZURICH (AFP)
The first malaria treatment for newborns and young infants has received approval from Swiss health regulators, with eight African countries poised to roll the drug out rapidly, pharmaceutical giant Novartis said Tuesday.
Malaria is a major killer in Africa, with the continent accounting for 95 percent of the 597,000 deaths from the disease worldwide in 2023, according to the World Health Organization.
Of those deaths, about 76 percent -- more than 432,000 -- were children under five, according to the WHO.
The infant version of Novartis's Coartem treatment, also known as Riamet, was developed in collaboration with the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a Geneva-based organisation specialising in research and development of medicines against the disease.
"Until now, there has been no approved malaria treatment for infants weighing less than 4.5 kilograms (nine pounds 15 ounces)," Novartis said in a statement.
The approval from Switzerland's health authority is for a dose designed for babies weighing two to five kilograms.
Eight of the countries hit hardest by malaria -- Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda -- participated in the Swiss approval process.
The countries are now expected to approve the treatment quickly themselves, under a programme to facilitate access to medicines for low- and middle-income countries, Novartis said.
The Swiss pharmaceutical company said it would introduce the treatment "on a largely not-for-profit basis" to increase access in places where the mosquito-borne disease is endemic.
An estimated 263 million people worldwide had malaria in 2023, according to the WHO.
