The World Health Organization (WHO) has granted prequalification to Coartem Baby, the first malaria treatment specifically designed for newborns and very young infants — a group that has long lacked safe, age-appropriate care. Developed by pharmaceutical company Novartis and the Medicines for Malaria Venture, the cherry-flavoured dissolvable tablets can be used in infants as small as 2kg, replacing adult-formulated drugs that carried risks of dosing errors and toxicity. The approval matters because malaria kills around 610,000 people annually, roughly three-quarters of them children under five in Africa, where up to 18% of babies under six months can be infected.