The world has made great advances in tackling malaria, but the disease still imposes a huge global health burden—and 75% of the hundreds of thousands who die from the disease annually are children under 5. Swiss nonprofit Medicines for Malaria Venture worked with Novartis in 2025 to bring to market Coartem Baby, the first malaria medicine for newborns and infants. “Babies under five kilos, they haven’t had any drugs studied in that particular population. These are the most vulnerable kids that when they get the disease, have the highest risk of death,” says MMV CEO Martin Fitchet. “Getting this data, and getting this unique new combination of an existing medicine…that was fantastic because we were able to plug the last evidence gap for malaria.”
