Immtech International, Inc. has announced that enrolment had begun in its Phase IIb trial of the oral drug DB289 to treat malaria. The study will enrol 120 patients with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases at Mahidol University, Bangkok,
Thailand.

The trial will compare the effectiveness of various three-day dose regimens of DB289 given alone (as mono-therapy) and in combination with artesunate (a drug for treating malaria that is extracted from the wormwood plant). For comparison purposes, a separate control group will receive a combination of the drugs artesunate and mefloquin which is the standard treatment for malaria in Thailand. All patients will be treated and monitored for a total of 28 days.

The market for anti-malaria drugs consists of a population of 2.6 billion people living in the developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America. The World Health Organization estimates that 300-500 million new clinical cases of malaria occur globally that result in 1.5 million to 2 million deaths per year.

Immtech International, Inc. is a pharmaceutical company advancing the development and commercialization of oral drugs to treat infectious diseases and neoplastic (cancer) and metabolic (diabetes) disorders.