World’s leading antimalarial product development partnership joins iiCON

MMV, a non-profit organisation founded in 1999 to discover, develop, and deliver new and affordable antimalarial drugs, is a public-private partnership that manages the world’s largest portfolio of malaria drug research and development projects.

Led by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), iiCON is a global R&D program that brings together industry, academia, and clinical organisations to speed up the discovery and development of new treatments, diagnostics, and preventative products for infectious diseases – saving and improving millions of lives through collaborative innovation.

MMV collaborates with hundreds of partners, including pharmaceutical companies, universities, and government agencies, to bring new medicines to market. Its goal is to reduce death and illness from malaria and support its eventual elimination.

The organisation joins existing core partners within iiCON including Evotec, Infex Therapeutics, LifeArc, Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust, Unilever, and the University of Liverpool.

Under the new agreement, MMV will work closely with several of iiCON’s existing platforms, including the Natural Product library screening platform led by LSTM, the AMR Hits to Leads platform led by Infex Therapeutics, and the Organoid robotic and AI-enabled drug discovery platforms led by LSTM.

The agreement will also enable access to MMV’s innovative drug discovery platforms, including AI/machine learning tools for drug design, and large screening networks with global partners for new antibiotics, antivirals, antiparasitics and antifungals.

Other areas of potential collaboration include projects around long-lasting therapeutics through iiCON’s Long-Acting Therapeutics platform led by The Centre of Long-Acting Therapeutics: CELT at the University of Liverpool.

Professor Janet Hemingway said: “MMV has a remarkable heritage as an organisation that has led the charge to deliver equitable, innovative antimalaria treatments to communities across the world over many decades – driving innovation and saving many millions of lives in the process.

“We are delighted to welcome them as a core partner to iiCON. Our joint commitment to accelerating innovative treatments for infectious diseases makes this an excellent fit. There are key parallels across several of our innovative platforms and MMV’s areas of work which hold the potential to deliver significant synergies as we work together to drive forward world-changing infection R&D.”

Dr Cristina Donini, Executive Vice President and Head of Research, Early Development and Modelling at MMV, said: “Collaboration is at the heart of our mission to improve global health. While our primary focus is malaria control and elimination, this mission complements our commitment to accelerating drug discovery for a range of diseases. Joining iiCON is an exciting opportunity to fast-track innovations that will transform the fight against infectious diseases, for malaria and beyond.”

Founded in 2020 with a £18.6m Strength in Places Fund grant from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), iiCON has gone on to secure over £251 million in investment. It has created 770 North West jobs and helped to increase the region’s R&D infection spend to over £1billion since it launched five years ago.

Working with a global network of almost 1,000 organisations, iiCON enables industry access to world-leading infection R&D facilities and expertise. It has supported 36 new products to market, with over 5 billion units of life-saving products and treatments reaching communities across the world.

iiCON is currently developing the Liverpool Robotic Infection Research Laboratory, the UK’s first Category Three Robotic Infection laboratory at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, where new technology is being leveraged to super-charge infection R&D in the Liverpool City Region.