An initiative that mails a box of antimalarial compounds for free to scientists around the world has helped boost research on drug discovery and development since its launch in 2011 and inspired a second project for neglected tropical diseases, according to product-development partnership the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV).
The Malaria Box contains samples of 400 compounds that are active against malaria, with enough of each compound to run up to ten experiments. The boxes have so far been shipped to dozens of scientists, including those in Africa, Asia and South America, and have resulted in nine peer reviewed papers and unexpected discoveries on diseases other than malaria.
Now MMV and its partners wish to capitalise on this success by launching a Pathogen Box by the end of 2015 to tackle an even broader range of neglected tropical diseases, such as tuberculosis and schistosomiasis.
"It's about getting the right compounds into the right labs - providing researchers with a head start by selecting and making available the most promising compounds," says Paul Willis, project director in drug discovery at MMV.
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