Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, along with its subsidiaries, and its CRDMO arm Aurigene Pharmaceutical Services have signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kainomyx, Inc., a US-based company with a proprietary platform that helps target cytoskeletal proteins of parasites, a novel mechanism of action, for the development and commercialisation of affordable anti-malaria drug in the US, Europe, and in low and middle-income countries.

Under the MoU, Kainomyx has agreed to lead the technical strategy and associated aspects for drug discovery and clinical phases, Aurigene has agreed to focus on developing cost-effective and scalable drug chemistry, and while the programme evolves, Dr. Reddy’s will bring in its regulatory and market access expertise.

As per WHO, an alarming number of 249 million malaria cases and 608,000 cases of malaria death were reported in year 2022. It has been widely reported that climate change will increase the incidences of such vector-borne diseases. With this collaboration, the companies intend to drive a comprehensive research and development agenda to leverage their strengths and accelerate the programme.