In quest to elim­i­nate trop­i­cal dis­eases, Mer­ck KGaA will sub­mit an­ti-worm­ing drug for ap­proval in young chil­dren

As Mer­ck KGaA makes moves to treat the ne­glect­ed trop­i­cal dis­ease schis­to­so­mi­a­sis, it has an­nounced that its treat­ment arpraz­i­quan­tel has yield­ed pos­i­tive Phase III tri­al re­sults in chil­dren be­tween the ages of 3 months and 6 years old, and the com­pa­ny will now seek reg­u­la­to­ry ap­proval.

A pe­di­atric ver­sion of the stan­dard drug praz­i­quan­tel, arpraz­i­quan­tel is an an­ti-worm med­ica­tion that pre­vents new­ly hatched, par­a­sitic worms from grow­ing or mul­ti­ply­ing in­side a pa­tient. The tri­al could of­fer a cure for mil­lions.

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