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Demand for malaria drug soars

Nature volume 466, pages 672–673 (2010)Cite this article

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Farmers and scientists struggle to keep up with needs of ambitious medicine-subsidy programme.

From bust to boom to bust again: artemisinin, the key ingredient of front-line antimalarial drugs, is entering the third chapter of its turbulent history. A decade ago, the compound — available only from the sweet wormwood plant Artemisia annua — was scarce and expensive. But by 2007, the market was wallowing in a surfeit of the drug as farmers flocked to grow the crop. Now, as a US$343-million initiative starts to battle malaria through hugely subsidized medicines, suppliers are again worried that there will not be enough artemisinin to go around, while farmers, plant breeders and synthetic biologists are hoping that they can snap the drug out of its roller-coaster supply cycle.

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  1. Richard Van Noorden
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Malaria special

Nature Medicine

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Affordable Medicines Facility — Malaria

A2S2 malaria medicine financing initiative

Artepal: Information on ACT production

World Health Organization, malaria

Centre for Novel Agricultural Products, University of York

National Institute of Agricultural Botany, Cambridge

Jay Keasling

Amyris on artemisinin

Sanofi-aventis on malaria

Malcolm Cutler

Artemisinin Conference 2010

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Van Noorden, R. Demand for malaria drug soars. Nature 466, 672–673 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/466672a

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