Eyam Health strikes partnership with Swiss non-profit to develop one-dollar malaria treatment

Vancouver-based Eyam Health has struck a research partnership with Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a Swiss non-profit that helps develop malaria treatments, to discover a more affordable antimalarial solution.

The partnership will use Eyam’s Jennerator platform, which relies on artificial intelligence (AI) to design medications, and its Gemini system (no relation to the Google-owned AI model) to develop and deliver monoclonal antibodies for malaria treatment.

Eyam has received multiple grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop its Gemini platform.

Monoclonal antibodies are lab-made proteins that help stimulate the immune system to fight disease. Eyam and MMV claim a single, long-acting injection could protect a patient for an entire rainy season, the roughly five month period where peak malaria transmission occurs. Eyam claims its Gemini system enables medications to be delivered without cold storage, while carrying multiple antibodies in a single dose that costs less than one dollar.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), malaria vaccines can cost between two to four dollars per dose.

Eyam says the Gemini delivery system also makes it possible to target multiple stages of a parasite’s lifecycle, and can be readily adapted for local manufacturing in communities in Africa where malaria is prevalent.

“The approach to develop affordable monoclonal antibodies with longer dosing intervals could be truly transformative for improving delivery and efficacy of broadscale preventive malaria campaigns including potential use in mass administration campaigns to accelerate malaria elimination,” MMV senior director Brice Campo said in a statement.

Founded in 2020 by Vancouver native Dr. Wilfred Jefferies, Eyam uses its Gemini and Jennerator platforms to develop treatments for infectious diseases, cancer, chronic disease, and animal health applications. The company has received multiple grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has previously committed to funding the eradication of malaria, to develop its Gemini platform.

According to the WHO, there were an estimated 263 million malaria cases in 2023, with 597,000 deaths from the disease, about three-quarters of them among children under five, in 83 countries. MMV launched in 1999 to use the expertise and resources of its partner network to discover, develop, and deliver new malaria treatments. MMV claims that its supported products have treated approximately 711 million people as of 2024.

Feature image courtesy Eyam Health.