MMV, a not-for-profit public-private partnership, was established as a foundation in Switzerland. It was created to discover, develop and deliver new, effective and affordable drugs for malaria in collaboration with public and private partners. MMV was one of the first product development partnerships (PDPs) and is a leader in terms of antimalarial drug research and development. A sister organization, the PATH Malaria Vaccines Initiative (MVI), focuses on malaria vaccine discovery and development.

MMV was launched on 3 November 1999, with initial seed finance of US$ 4 million from the Government of Switzerland, UK Department for International Development, the Government of the Netherlands, The World Bank and Rockefeller Foundation.

Over the past decade MMV has successfully worked with more than 260 partners in almost 50 countries from the private sector, from the public sector, from NGOs and non profit organizations, as well as from clinical centres in endemic countries.

MMV’s portfolio focuses on delivering new antimalarial medicines that are affordable, accessible and appropriate for use in malariaendemic areas. Each medicine must provide significant benefit compared to the current gold standard treatment and be active against all known resistant strains of the parasite. Specifically, the goal is to develop products that will provide a range of benefits including:

• A one-dose cure for uncomplicated malaria
• Potential for intermittent treatments (infants and pregnancy)
• Safety in small children (< 6 months old)
• Safety in pregnancy
• Efficacy against Plasmodium vivax (including radical cure)
• Efficacy against severe malaria
• Transmission-blocking treatment