Malaria is an old infectious disease caused mainly by two protozoan parasites, Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. Over the last few decades the malaria burden has steadily increased and 1 to 3 million people yearly die from malaria — mostly children under the age of 5.
 

This unacceptable increase in malaria mortality is due in part to the fact that Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest malaria parasite, has acquired resistance against nearly all available antimalarial drugs — the only exception being the artemisinin derivatives. Artemisinin-containing combination therapies (ACT) such as Novartis’ Coartem® are the only effective treatments against drug-resistant malaria.
 

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