title: Antimalarial compounds in Phase II clinical development.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Malaria is a major health problem in endemic countries and chemotherapy remains the most important tool in combating it. Treatment options are limited and essentially rely on a single drug class - the artemisinins. Efforts are ongoing to restrict the evolving threat of artemisinin resistance but declining sensitivity has been reported. Fueled by the ambitious aim of malaria eradication, novel antimalarial compounds, with improved properties, are now in the progressive phase of drug development.
  
  
  METHODS
  Herein, the authors describe antimalarial compounds currently in Phase II clinical development and present the results of these investigations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thanks to recent efforts, a number of promising antimalarial compounds are now in the pipeline. First safety data have been generated for all of these candidates, although their efficacy as antimalarials is still unclear for most of them. Of particular note are KAE609, KAF156 and DSM265, which are of chemical scaffolds new to malaria chemotherapy and would truly diversify antimalarial options. Apart from SAR97276, which also has a novel chemical scaffold that has had its development stopped, all other compounds in the pipeline belong to already known substance classes, which have been chemically modified. At this moment in time, there is not one standout compound that will revolutionize malaria treatment but several compounds that will add to its control in the future.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Tropenmedizin, Eberhard Karls Universität , Wilhelmstraße 27, D-72074 Tübingen , Germany +49 7071 29 85569 ; +49 7071 295189 ; janaheld@hotmail.de.
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Held
authors.forename: Sankarganesh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jeyaraj
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kreidenweiss
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000962:Antimalarials / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017322:Clinical Trials, Phase II as Topic; D015195:Drug Design; D004351:Drug Resistance; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials
keywords: AQ-13; DF02; DSM265; KAE609; KAF156; OZ439; Phase II; Plasmodium falciparum; Plasmodium vivax; SAR97276; artemisone; chemotherapy; drug development; ferroquine; fosmidomycin; methylene blue; sevuparin; tafenoquine