[Ip-health] New technologies gearing up to meet rising demand for vital malaria drugs

[elspeth bartlet]

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New technologies gearing up to meet rising demand for vital malaria drugs



Three emerging technologies have the potential to significantly improve
supplies of drugs to combat malaria, according to a new report (1).



With renewed efforts to eradicate malaria (2) - a disease which kills up to
one million people every year, most of them young children - the global
demand for antimalarials is set to increase dramatically over the next four
years.



The report, launched at a special meeting of the All Party Parliamentary
Group for Malaria at Westminster, assesses a portfolio of new technologies,
collectively known as The Artemisinin Enterprise (3):



*	The Centre for Novel Agricultural Products at the University of York
is using fast-track plant breeding to increase yields of artemisinin from
the medicinal plant.
*	The Institute for One World Health is using synthetic biology to
produce artemisinin through fermentation and subsequent chemical conversion.

*	The Medicines for Malaria Venture is developing novel synthetic
artemisinin-like compounds.



The World Health Organization recommends artemisinin combination therapies
(ACTs) as the most effective treatments available today. Around 100 million
Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies (ACTs) were sold in 2006, but
forecasts show that demand will at least double over the next four years,
potentially growing to over 300 million doses annually.



Artemisinin is extracted from the medicinal plant Artemisia annua but
production of the drugs is expensive and quality variable. Uneven supplies
have caused prices to vary from USD $1200/kg to $120 between 2005 and 2008
leading to high levels of uncertainty in the market for growers and
pharmaceutical companies.There is growing concern that the current global
supply of artemisinin cannot reliably and affordably produce the quantities
or quality that will be required for ACT production.



The report concludes that the outputs from all three technologies can
collectively help satisfy the projected global demand for malaria treatments
by providing alternative sources of artemisinin, stabilising the supply of
effective antimalarial drugs such as ACTs and reducing the cost of
artemisinin production.



The new technologies will only be used to support the production of high
quality combination therapies for malaria. Such therapies are essential to
counter the development of artemisinin resistance, a major threat to
effectively fighting the disease. These technologies are envisaged to come
online in the next 3-7 years.



The report recommends measures to help to ensure the effective introduction
of the new technologies of the Artemisinin Enterprise into the ACT supply
chain.  It also highlights suggestions for the wider malaria community,
aimed at improving the supply of ACTs in other ways. These include creating
buffer stocks, harmonizing the regulatory approach for faster ACT approvals
and improving demand forecasting.



The report is based on the conclusions of the Artemisinin Enterprise
Conference 2008, which was sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation and the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and hosted by the
University of York.





ENDS





Notes to Editors:

(1)  The report and webcast presentations from the AE Conference can be
accessed online at
<http://www.york.ac.uk/org/cnap/artemisiaproject/AEconference.html>
http://www.york.ac.uk/org/cnap/artemisiaproject/AEconference.html.

 (2) The Global Malaria Action Plan is the Roll Back Malaria Partnership's
vision for substantial and sustained reduction in burden of malaria in the
near and mid term and the eventual global eradication of malaria in the long
term  <http://www.rbm.who.int/gmap/index.html>
http://www.rbm.who.int/gmap/index.html.

 (3) The Artemisinin Enterprise website
<http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/extra/artemisininenterprise/>
http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/extra/artemisininenterprise/.

 For more information, please contact:

 Elspeth Bartlett, CNAP eb526@york.ac.uk +44 (0) 7814664961

Jim Hickman, iOWH, JHickman@oneworldhealth.org +1 415 990 8239

Jaya Banerji, MMV: banerjij@mmv.org; mobile +41 79 707 7181









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