An editorial notes that chloroquine was such an effective drug that little was done to prepare for its failure. It considers the emergence of artemisinin-resistant parasites as a major threat to further advances in malaria control and every effort needs to be made to contain their spread while at the same time pushing forward with the development of effective alternative treatments that are almost certainly going to be needed in the future. An early trial of one of these new compounds is reported in the journal: spiroindolone developed by Novartis, has a novel mechanism of action targeting a parasite plasma membrane Na+-ATPase, and it is effective against both asexual-stage and sexual-stage parasites. Three days of treatment led to very rapid parasite clearance in 11 patients with P. falciparum malaria and 10 patients with P. vivax malaria.