Modus Therapeutics partners with Imperial College London on malaria drug

Swedish biotech company Modus Therapeutics has announced a new collaboration with Imperial College London to research the effects of its drug sevuparin in patients with severe malaria.

The research collaboration will be undertaken by a team led by Kathryn Maitland from Imperial College London.

“Given the potential of sevuparin to be transformative in improving current outcomes from severe malaria, a large group of specialist doctors in severe malaria research and clinical trials suggested that sevuparin should be tested in children with severe malaria,” said Maitland.

“All members of the group helped to design this clinical trial which will be conducted on the high dependency ward in Kilifi, Kenya,” she added.

Under the collaboration, Modus will supply sevuparin to a future clinical study in patients with severe malaria.

Modus is currently developing sevuparin for sepsis/septic shock and other conditions with systemic inflammation.

The malaria project is funded by a collaborator grant in science from Wellcome to Maitland’s research group at KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Programme, Kilifi Kenya and to the international consortium “Severe Malaria Africa -A consortium for Research and Trials” (SMAART).

“This work will also provide an important opportunity for Modus to understand more about sevuparin’s potential to tackle disorders involving systemic inflammation in parallel with our lead indication, sepsis,” said John Öhd, chief executive officer of Modus Therapeutics,

“We are also honoured to be able to participate in this work led by Professor Maitland, a world-leader in clinical malaria research and which has the backing of institutions such as Imperial College London and Wellcome,” he added.