A new lead in malaria

A consortium of researchers led by the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases has identified a potent new class of antimalarials that could provide a much needed safeguard against parasites resistant to the largely artemisinin-based armamentarium of malaria drugs. The consortium's experience suggests that directly screening in whole parasites-instead of first identifying a potential drug target-may be the most effective path to discovering new compounds.

Novartis AG hopes to begin a Phase I trial of the lead compound as early as year end...