Artemisinin News and Research

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Artemisinin is a drug used to treat multi-drug resistant strains of falciparum malaria. The compound (a sesquiterpene lactone) is isolated from the plant Artemisia annua. Not all plants of this species contain artemisinin.

New research could lead to cheaper, easier production of malaria drug artemisinin

"Artemisinin, a crucial drug in the global fight against malaria, could soon become cheaper and easier to make, thanks to researchers who have found a better way to synthesize the compound," Science NOW reports, providing an overview of the research published in Angewandte Chemie on Monday.

20 Jan 2012

New York Times examines history of malaria drug artemisinin

The New York Times examines the history of the Chinese drug artemisinin, "hailed as one of the greatest advances in fighting malaria ... since the discovery of quinine centuries ago," noting the drug "is being talked about as a candidate for a Nobel Prize in Medicine."

19 Jan 2012

Counterfeit malaria drugs endanger millions of lives

According to researchers fake and poor quality anti-malarial drugs are threatening efforts to control the disease in Africa and could put millions of lives at risk. These counterfeit medicines could harm patients and promote drug resistance among malaria parasites, warns the study, funded by the Wellcome Trust.

18 Jan 2012

Researchers develop simple process for synthesis of artemisinin

The most effective anti-malaria drug can now be produced inexpensively and in large quantities. This means that it will be possible to provide medication for the 225 million malaria patients in developing countries at an affordable price. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam and the Freie Universit-t Berlin have developed a very simple process for the synthesis of artemisinin, the active ingredient that pharmaceutical companies could only obtain from plants up to now.

18 Jan 2012

OneWorld Health to become PATH affiliate

"PATH and OneWorld Health (OWH) on Friday announced that OWH will become an affiliate of PATH, bringing its drug development expertise and experience in neglected infectious diseases to bear on PATH's mission of improving global health through innovation," according to a PATH press release.

20 Dec 2011

Yissum introduces novel technology for manufacturing an anti-malaria drug in tobacco

Combating malaria is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals described in the United Nations Millennium Declaration signed by all UN members at the year 2000. A key intervention to control malaria is prompt and effective treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapies.

19 Dec 2011

Affordable artemisinin using tobacco plants

19 Dec 2011

Antimalarial drugs administered during pregnancy safer than contracting malaria, study suggests

"Antimalarial drugs are safer for pregnant women than contracting the disease," according to a study from the University of Oxford published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases on Tuesday that "assessed the effects of malaria and its treatment in the first trimester of pregnancy," HealthCanal.com reports.

16 Dec 2011

ISARIC aims to prepare clinical research community for next influenza pandemic

An international consortium aimed at ensuring that the clinical research community is better prepared for the next influenza pandemic or other rapidly emerging public health threat is launched today by leading funders of medical research from across the globe.

8 Dec 2011

Fake, poor-quality drugs boosting malaria drug resistance in Southeast Asia, U.S. experts say

"Fake or poor quality malaria drugs are boosting resistance in parts of southeast Asia, a problem that is likely to worsen unless tighter regulations are adopted, U.S. experts said Monday" at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, Agence France-Presse reports.

7 Dec 2011

New class of malaria drugs could be used as both prevention, treatment, study shows

"A group of researchers led by Novartis AG have discovered novel malaria compounds that may prove to be more efficient than currently available treatments and could be used as a prophylactic," the Wall Street Journal reports.

19 Nov 2011

Synthetic artemisinin discovery could make malaria treatments more affordable, accessible

"Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the biotech start-up Amyris have developed a process to manufacture artemisinin, a crucial ingredient in first-line malaria drugs that until now had to be extracted from a natural crop called sweet wormwood," PBS NewsHour reports.

3 Nov 2011

Despite progress in malaria vaccine development, funding remains potential stumbling block

In this Guardian opinion piece, the newspaper's health editor, Sarah Boseley, responds to the positive results of a large-scale clinical trial of an experimental malaria vaccine reported on Tuesday and recaps other strides made against the disease in recent years, writing that "there is a way to go yet, with more results from the trial to come, and many uncertainties, including how much this vaccine will cost and who will be persuaded to pay."

20 Oct 2011

Link between changes in malaria parasite and absorption of pharmaceutical compounds

Professor Max Petzold at the Nordic School of Public Health shows in a recent article a link between changes in the malaria parasite and the absorption of pharmaceutical compounds. Increased knowledge of the malaria parasite and the connection with the development of resistance may contribute to the development of new malaria treatments.

26 Sep 2011

Urgency of antimalarial drug resistance must be recognized

Arjen Dondorp, deputy director of the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Research Unit at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand, and colleagues discuss the need to combat antimalarial drug resistance in this New England Journal of Medicine opinion piece, writing, "Researchers, funders, and policy leaders must recognize the urgency of the problem, take action to address simultaneously several important knowledge gaps, and focus immediately on eliminating the threat of artemisinin resistance."

23 Sep 2011

Mosquitoes fast to develop resistance against insecticide-treated bed nets

According to a study from Senegal mosquitoes are quick to develop resistance to insecticide-treated nets. This has raised concerns that a leading method of preventing the disease may be less effective than previously thought.

18 Aug 2011

France 24's Health program examines challenges to fighting malaria in Madagascar

France 24's video program Health examines challenges to fighting malaria in Madagascar, where some people who cannot afford newer artemisinin-based combination therapies use older, less-effective medications that can promote drug resistance and others misuse mosquito nets.

29 Jun 2011

New malaria initiative

According to the UN chief envoy for malaria a $5 billion campaign has saved several hundred thousand lives in recent years, keeping international efforts on track to virtually end deaths from the mosquito-borne disease by 2015. The UN reveals that about 780,000 people, mostly babies and toddlers in sub-Saharan Africa, now die from malaria annually, down from nearly 1 million in 2008.

26 Apr 2011

U.N. Secretary-General calls for scale up of global malaria efforts ahead of World Malaria Day

Global malaria control efforts must be significantly scaled up if the world is to reach the goal of reducing malaria deaths to almost zero by 2015, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a message on Thursday ahead of World Malaria Day, which is officially observed on Monday, the U.N. News Centre writes.

25 Apr 2011

MSF calls on African governments, WHO to switch to newer, more expensive treatment for severe malaria

Nearly 200,000 deaths from severe malaria could be averted if African governments replaced the low-cost antimalarial quinine with the more expensive but more effective drug artesunate, according to a report (.pdf) released Tuesday by Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Reuters reports (Kelland, 4/19).

20 Apr 2011