An international collaborative study has identified several novel derivatives of anticancer proteasome inhibitors (PIs) that had potential as antimalarials, the authors reported in the September 28, 2021, online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A collaboration aimed at identifying and developing potential new antimalarial drug candidate drugs has been announced between Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, and Janssen Pharmaceutica, with assistance from Johnson & Johnson Innovation. The collaboration has already discovered promising compounds with antimalarial activity from among 80,000 drug-like molecules in the Janssen Jumpstarter Compound Library, a collection of drug-like compounds designed to fast-track discovery of new medicines.