Scientists say new process would make anti-malarial drug less costly

Scientists are reporting development of a new, higher-yield, two-step, less costly process that may ease supply problems and zigzagging prices for the raw material essential for making the mainstay drug for malaria. That disease sickens 300-500 million people annually and kills more than 1 million.

The report on the process, which uses readily available substances and could be easily implemented by drug companies, appears in ACS' journal Organic Process Research & Development.

David Teager and Rodger Stringham of the Clinton Health Access Initiative explain that artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) is the most effective treatment for malaria, a parasitic infection that is transferred to humans from the bite of an infected mosquito. Artemisinin, which is used to produce the key ingredient in ACT, comes from Artemisia annua, a medicinal plant grown in China.