The Hindu Business Line : Efforts on to make malaria drugs affordable

Hyderabad, Sept. 28 Malaria continues to remain a prominent killer in developing countries such as India. The parasite (plasmodium f), has rendered quinine-based drugs largely ineffective.

Another plant-based drug artemisinin, which is quite expensive ($1-2.5 a dose of treatment), has limitations of raw material in these countries where mostly the poor fall victims to malaria.

The microbial route using fermentation to produce the anti-malarials could ensure quality and large volume drug availability in the near future. The Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $43 million for the project.

While efforts to develop vaccines and cost-effective anti-malarial drugs continue, a promising microbial artemisinin, produced by Amyris Biotechnologies, based on the technology developed by the University of California, and transferred to Sanofi-aventis, is expected to hit the market by 2010.

The anti-malarial drug to be available in tablet form should be at least priced on par with the present plant-derived artemisinin drugs, but will become progressively more affordable, said Dr Jay D. Keasling, who is associated with Amyris Biotechnologies and University of California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Pharmaceutical company Sanofi-aventis is known to produce drugs for developing countries.

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