Medicines for Malaria Venture
Swiss non-profit organization
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) is a not-for-profit public-private partnership that was established as a foundation in Switzerland in 1999 to reduce malaria in disease-endemic countries using antimalarial drugs.
History
MMV was launched in 1999,[1] with funding of US$4 million from the Government of Switzerland, the Department for International Development (UK), the Government of the Netherlands, the World Bank, and the Rockefeller Foundation. A founder and an initial key employee was Dr Robert Ridley who served at the chief Scientific Officer until 2001.[1][2]
Governance
MMV is governed by a board of directors. The Chairman in 2022 was Alan Court.[3] MMV has a board of directors in North America, an Expert Scientific Advisory Committee which helps to identify projects, an Access & Product Management Advisory Committee and a Global Safety Board which reviews projects.[4]
Projects
MMV's project portfolio includes, drug-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum, safety for small children (less than 6 months old) and in pregnancy. It also includes Plasmodium vivax, severe malaria and transmission-blocking treatment.[citation needed] MMV publishes a pipeline showing the drugs and developments it is involved with.[5]
Open Source Malaria
MMV started the Open Source Malaria project,[6] which encourages people to share procedures and results of open source research.[7] The Open Source Malaria, with researchers at the University of Sydney, supervised high school students at Sydney Grammar School who adapted a synthesis of Daraprim (pyrimethamine) using a less hazardous method in 2016.[8][9]