From 17^th to 21^st October 2021, the 10^th EDCTP Forum was held as a hybrid meeting hosted from the Joaquim Chissano International Conference Centre in Maputo, Mozambique. More than 2000 participants from 94 different countries attended the Forum either virtually or in person. The main programme of the Forum featured plenary presentations by keynote speakers, scientific sessions of oral and poster presentations as well as sponsored symposia and workshops. The theme of the Forum was “Equity in research for health”, which is at the core of the EDCTP mission. 

During the Forum, the SINDOFO project was presented as a poster by Dr. Juliana Inoue from the University of Tübingen. More specifically, the poster highlighted the general background of the SINDOFO project and the aim to develop a drug combination made of Ferroquine (FQ) and ZY-19489 (previously known as MMV253) for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria. The preliminary study design, which consists of three different parts, was also mentioned. The first part of the clinical trial is composed of dose escalation in adult asymptomatic carriers for characterization of safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and parasite clearance of the drug combination. The second part aims at identifying the efficacy, safety and pharmacokinetics of the drug combination in malaria patients older than 5 years of age. The last part depends mainly on the results of the second part and involves finding the most effective and safe combination doses in children with uncomplicated malaria. This will enable the support of ZY-19489 plus Ferroquine phase III dose selection rationale. Furthermore, the SINDOFO project will contribute to capacity building in the four African partners institutions by hiring and training one PhD student and a postdoctoral researcher at each African institution; and infrastructure (equipment) upgrade as well as training of the staff will be provided.