Environmental sustainability innovation: Leading companies in anti-malarial compositions

The pharmaceutical industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by the evolution of evolving treatment paradigms, the gravity of unmet medical needs, as well as the growing importance of themes such as pharmacogenomics, digital therapeutics, and artificial intelligence. In the last three years alone, there have been over 633,000 patents filed and granted in the pharmaceutical industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Environmental Sustainability in Pharmaceuticals: Anti-malarial compositions. 

According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which uses over 756,000 patents to analyse innovation intensity for the pharmaceutical industry, there are 110 innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.

Anti-malarial medications such as chloroquine are used for the treatment and prevention of malaria infection. Majority of anti-malarial medications focus on the erythrocytic stage of the disease that results in the symptoms of malaria. Anti-malarial medications work by eliminating the parasite – known as Plasmodium parasites – that has infected the red blood cells of the patient. There are multiple anti-malarial medications with various chemical structures, with each one damaging the disease-causing parasite in a different way, but generally via killing the parasite enzymes or activities within infected erythrocytes. 

GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 30+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established pharmaceutical companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of anti-malarial compositions.

‘Application diversity’ measures the number of different applications identified for each relevant patent and broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators. 

‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of different countries each relevant patent is registered in and reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’. 

GSK is a leading healthcare company that focuses on developing, manufacturing and commercialising pharmaceuticals, vaccines and consumer healthcare products. It offers drugs for the treatment of diseases such as HIV, respiratory, cancer, immuno-inflammation, anti-viral, central nervous system (CNS), metabolic, cardiovascular and urogenital, anti-bacterial, dermatological and certain rare diseases.  

GSK and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) together have developed a pre-clinical portfolio of antimalarial properties. Through its extensive global R&D and supply network, GSK offers clinical, regulatory, and manufacturing knowledge and resources when compounds enter the clinical development stage. In 2021, the WHO recommended broader use of GSK’s Mosquirix to reduce illness and deaths from malaria in children living in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions with moderate to high transmission as defined by the WHO. 

In terms of application diversity, CAS-Lamvac Biotech is the top company followed by Theravectys and Vir Biotechnology. By means of geographic reach, Theravectys holds the top position. Otsuka Holdings and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals are in the second and third positions, respectively. 

To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the pharmaceutical industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research reports on the Pharmaceutical industry.