60 Degrees Pharmaceuticals’ Arakoda is an alternative treatment for Malaria.
Earlier in July, GlaxoSmithKline and Medicines for Malaria Venture received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Krintafel (tafenoquine) as a treatment for the prevention of relapse of Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) malaria in patients aged 16 years and older who are receiving appropriate antimalarial therapy for acute P. vivax infection.
More recently, FDA’s the Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee (AMDAC) voted to support the approval of Arakoda (tafenoquine) being developed by 60 Degrees Pharmaceuticals (60P) for the prevention of malaria in adults. The committee voted 11 to 2 in favor on the drug’s efficacy and 9 to 4 in favor on its safety.
Tafenoquine is an 8-aminoquinoline derivative with activity against all stages of the P. vivax lifecycle, including hypnozoites, which are forms of the virus that lie dormant in the liver and can give rise to multiple episodes of the disease.
60P submitted its new drug application for Arakoda in December 2017. It also submitted an application to the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in September 2017. The company believes that its version of tagenoquine will “provide a significant advancement in protecting individuals traveling to parts of the world where malaria is endemic and could be an ideal option for people traveling for leisure, employees of non-governmental organizations, industrial and business workers, and military forces,” according to 60P CEO Geoffrey Dow.
