Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (Ranbaxy) launched the country’s first in-house developed new medicine, a new malaria drug, to be priced at one-third the cost of the current therapies.

The drug ‘Synriamtm’ was launched in New Delhi on the occasion of World Malaria Day , April 25th, 2012.  The unveiling of India’s first new indigenously developed new drug for Malaria was done by Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and Vilasrao Deshmukh, Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Government of India, with Ranbaxy dedicating the new age cure for malaria to the nation.

What is most exciting about this drug is that its raw material is synthetic unlike the popularly used Artemisinim based drugs that are derived from a plant.  This allows for scaling up of commercial quantities with ease and opened a new chapter in the history of Research and Development in India thus ending a 15-year drug discovery drought for Indian medicine makers.

Ranbaxy’s anti-malaria drug, a combination of two molecules, arterolane maleate and piperaquine phosphatethe will be needed to be taken once a day by patients for three days for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium Falciparum malaria in adults.