Comment on 'The clinical pharmacology of tafenoquine in the radical cure of Plasmodium vivax malaria: An individual patient data meta-analysis'.

A single 300 mg dose of tafenoquine, in combination with chloroquine, is currently approved in several countries for the radical cure (prevention of relapse) of Plasmodium vivax malaria in patients aged ≥16 years. Recently, however, Watson et al. suggested that the approved dose of tafenoquine is insufficient for radical cure, and that a higher 450 mg dose could reduce P. vivax recurrences substantially (Watson et al., 2022). In this response, we challenge Watson et al.'s assertion based on empirical evidence from dose-ranging and pivotal studies (published) as well as real-world evidence from post-approval studies (ongoing, therefore currently unpublished). We assert that, collectively, these data confirm that the benefit-risk profile of a single 300 mg dose of tafenoquine, co-administered with chloroquine, for the radical cure of P. vivax malaria in patients who are not G6PD-deficient, continues to be favourable where chloroquine is indicated for P. vivax malaria. If real-world evidence of sub-optimal efficacy in certain regions is observed or dose-optimisation with other blood-stage therapies is required, then well-designed clinical studies assessing safety and efficacy will be required before higher doses are approved for clinical use. © 2024, Sharma et al.

Citation

Raman Sharma, Chao Chen, Lionel Tan, Katie Rolfe, Ioana-Gabriela Fiţa, Siôn Jones, Anup Pingle, Rachel A Gibson, Navin Goyal, Hema Sharma, Panayota Bird. Comment on 'The clinical pharmacology of tafenoquine in the radical cure of Plasmodium vivax malaria: An individual patient data meta-analysis'. eLife. 2024 Feb 07;13

Mesh Tags

Substances

PMID: 38323802

search → result