Malaria is an infectious disease caused by two protozoan parasites, Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. Over the last few decades, malaria has steadily increased. Today, it kills more than 1 million people every year. Most fatalaties are children under age five.

This unacceptable rise in malaria mortality is due in part to the fact that Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest malaria parasite, has acquired resistance to nearly all available antimalarial drugs — the only exception being the artemisinin derivatives. Artemisinin-containing combination therapies, such as Coartem from Novartis, are the only effective treatments against drug-resistant malaria.

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