Malaria Drug Tested On Humans

[george]

Malaria drug tested on humans

BANGKOK: -- Health officials in Thailand have begun a human trial of a low-cost antiviral drug to treat malaria. If successful, the drug could be on the market in two years.

Pakdee Pothisiri, Food and Drug Administration secretary general, said the final phase of the human trial has been approved and will be conducted by a team of researchers from Mahidol University's Tropical Medicine Department.

Malaria has long been a health problem in tropical countries like Thailand and it is necessary to develop effective tools to help treat those infected with the disease, he said.

In Thailand, almost 12,000 people have contracted the disease and 19 have died during the current outbreak.

Sornchai Luareesuwan, a principle investigator for the drug trial, said when the university launched its bid to find a malaria-fighting drug, its research and development centre worked hard to develop safe and effective remedies.

''It is expected that a low-cost drug against malaria will be developed within the next two years, one the final phase of the human trial is complete,'' he said.

During the first phase of the trial, which involved 72 malaria patients, Dr Sornchai said the drug proved to be effective and could curb the disease within three days. The current remedy takes up to 28 days.

More than 100 of volunteers will be recruited for the trial.

The Medicine for Malaria Venture, an international non-governmental organisation, will support the project, he said.

The drug being tested was produced from a Chinese herb. Each dose costs 150-200 baht.

If the trial is successful, up to 500 million people are expected to benefit from the medicine, he said.

--Bangkok Post 2005-06-15

[soi lurker]

Do you know the name of the drug? (or is it a herb?)

From my experience all anti-malerial medications are pretty toxic and with side affects......

[BambinA]

Do you know the name of the drug? (or is it a herb?)

From my experience all anti-malerial medications are pretty toxic and with side affects......

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

well, i ask my "so-called" BF who do PhD ,phama. his project is"maralia" .. maybe On next Tues if i meet him, i will tell you agian na ka

It's Bambi

[meadish_sweetball]

Do you know the name of the drug? (or is it a herb?)

From my experience all anti-malerial medications are pretty toxic and with side affects......

This preparation (because I assume it must be the same, given the Chinese connection) has been discussed before in this forum or another (I cannot remember which one exactly), and there is a very interesting story behind its "discovery".

I will search for info to see if I can find the article containing this info, and then post back here.

/Meadish

[EDIT]

The plant is called sweet wormwood in English. The scientific name is Artemisia Annua, and the active substance that is an antimalarial is called artemisinin.

Here is the text I was looking for:

The commercial development of artemisinin actually began with the Vietnam War when Ho Chi-Minh asked China for help with the Vietcong's growing malaria problem in 1967. Beijing consulted ancient medical text which included mentions of "qinghao," as artemisinin is known in Chinese. A scholar called Ge Hong (281-340 AD) recommended "a handful of qinghao in two pints of water".

Clinical forms of artemisinin were introduced in the 1980s but since China has relatively few cases of malaria it attracted little international attention until the growing resistance to quinine-based drugs.

"Artemisinin will be the first Chinese herbal cure that not only complements Western medicine but actually replaces it," Mr Tan said. A cowherd leads his animal through a field of sweet wormwood or artemisinin in a valley near Chongqing in Sichuan province. Artemisinin has become a lucrative crop for Chinese farmers in the region as they rush to grow enough of the plants for use in the fight against malaria. The fern-like weed, known as a medical remedy to the Chinese for at least 2,000 years, seems set to replace other drugs whose effectiveness against malaria is diminishing. The World Health Organisation says that it is the new gold standard for malaria treatment and a spokesman for the Department for International Development said: "It‚s . . . the future of first-line treatment."

Much more info at New Media Explorer

Cheers

Meadish

Edited June 18, 2005 by meadish_sweetball

[soi lurker]

Cheers..... my friend just returned from ubon with type 2 malaria......