MDS Pharma Services Wins Award for Management of Global Mal...( KING OF PRUSSIA PA Sept. 7 / MDS ...),Health

KING OF PRUSSIA, PA, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - MDS Pharma Services, a leading provider of innovative drug discovery and development solutions, has won the Good Clinical Practice Journal (GCPj) Award for the clinical research program that best promotes access to new medicines. This award is one of a series of inaugural GCPj awards introduced this year to recognize excellence in clinical research. MDS Pharma Services received this award during a ceremony in London where it was recognized for its successful management of a large-scale Phase III malaria drug trial involving more than 2,700 patients in Laos, India, Thailand, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia.

The compound studied by MDS Pharma Services is relatively low-cost and has the potential to become a major breakthrough in the treatment of malaria, a deadly mosquito-borne disease prevalent in the world's poorest countries. According to the World Health Organization, malaria kills more than one million people each year and there are between 350 and 500 million clinical episodes of this disease occurring annually. This high incidence rate is fueled by malaria's growing resistance to existing drugs.

This malaria clinical trial was conducted by MDS Pharma Services on behalf of an international collaboration between Sigma-Tau, a leading pharmaceutical company based in Italy; the non-profit Medicines for Malaria Venture, which is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; China's Chongqing Holley pharmaceutical company; and Britain's Oxford University.

"At Sigma-Tau, we appreciate the challenges in carrying out a large global trial," said Sigma-Tau Medical Department Director Marco Corsi. "The successful completion of this trial was made possible by both the professionalism of the MDS people managing the trial and the personal commitment of all participants to improve the treatment of malaria - a neglected but deadly disease."

"We are really honoured by this
'/>"/>