Anacor Pharmaceuticals today announced that it has entered into a research agreement with not-for-profit Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) to explore Anacor’s novel boron chemistry platform for developing new therapeutics for the treatment of malaria. Under the agreement, Anacor will be responsible for leading the research effort and MMV will contribute its extensive malaria drug research expertise as well as financial support.

“Anacor is pleased to be working with MMV in an effort to discover and develop promising new therapeutics for malaria,” said David Perry, Chief Executive Officer of Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. “Anacor will continue to pursue these research and development activities in neglected diseases with the world’s leading not-for-profit organizations where we believe that our boron chemistry platform and expertise shows promising activity.”

“This agreement being announced in conjunction with World Malaria Day 2010 underscores our commitment to seek innovative scientific approaches that will provide the next generation of front line malaria therapeutics,” says Dr. Tim Wells, Chief Scientific Officer of MMV. “Malaria kills over 850,000 people annually, with the majority of victims being children under five and pregnant women. There is a critical need for safe and easy to use medications to thwart growing resistance to current drugs in this most vulnerable population. We hope that this collaboration with Anacor will lead us to effective new treatments for this devastating disease.”