The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) has signed an agreement with the TDR, a joint UN–World Health Organization program, to drive the center's medical research toward better understanding infectious disease in developing nations, particularly in Africa. The memorandum of understanding was signed in Shanghai on 14 June, the closing day of a symposium dedicated to the research and control of infectious diseases of poverty.

Chinese scientists have already made a notable contribution to international research in malaria with their work on Artemisia annua, a traditional herb that now serves as the foundation of most malaria treatment programs worldwide in the form of artemisinin-based drugs.

As a special program for tackling tropical diseases, TDR has offered grants to support medical research in countries such as China since 1979. The memorandum of understanding with the CCDC will accelerate discovery as it “provides a broad framework agreement for cooperation,” according to Robert Ridley, director of TDR.

“As China transitions into its new international role and scales up its international development efforts there is great value in maintaining a focus both on infectious diseases of poverty and on research for health and development,” he says. “This twin focus can empower developing-country research institutions to play a more pivotal leadership role in supporting broader development-orientated programs.”

Since signing the agreement, TDR has sent African researchers to the National Center for Drug Screening in Shanghai to work together on potential new drug candidates against diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and sleeping sickness.

“This is a new model,” Ming-Wei Wang, director of the Shanghai center, said in a statement on TDR's website. “We are trying to create a new mechanism, a collaboration not only at the multinational level but with different partners.”