• Malaria : Sensationelle Entdeckung | rbb Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg
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    Malaria: Sensationelle Entdeckung

    Die Freie Universität hat ein revolutionäres Verfahren zur preiswerten Herstellung von Malaria-Medikamenten entwickelt. Das könnte viele Leben retten: Eine Million Menschen sterben bislang jährlich an der Krankheit, darunter viele Kinder im Alter zwischen zwei und fünf Jahren.

    Zehn Dollar kostet im Durchschnitt in Afrika eine Therapie. Die Erfindung aus Dahlem könnte den Preis auf rund drei Euro drücken.

    La dernière phrase dit l’essentiel : L’invention a le potentiel de faire baisser le coût du traitement du paludisme à trois dollars par cas.

    Anti-malaria Drug Synthesised with the Help of Oxygen and Lighrug Synthesised with the Help of Oxygen and Light http://www.fu-berlin.de/en/presse/informationen/fup/2012/fup_12_010/index.html

    In the future it should be possible to produce the best anti-malaria drug, artemisinin, more economically and in sufficient volumes for all patients

    The most effective anti-malaria drug can now be produced inexpensively and in large quantities. This means that it will be possible to provide medication for the 225 million malaria patients in developing countries at an affordable price. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam and Freie Universität Berlin have developed a very simple process for the synthesis of artemisinin, the active ingredient that pharmaceutical companies could only obtain from plants up to now. The chemists use a waste product from current artemisinin production as their starting substance. This substance can also be produced biotechnologically in yeast, which the scientists convert into the active ingredient using a simple yet very ingenious method.

    There is an effective treatment against malaria, but it is not accessible to all of the more than 200 million people worldwide who are affected by the disease. Millions, especially in the developing world, cannot afford the combination drug preparation, which consists mainly of artemisinin. Moreover, the price for the medication varies, as this substance is isolated from sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua) which grows mainly in China and Vietnam, and varies seasonally in its availability. To make the drug affordable for at least some patients in developing countries, the Clinton Foundation, for example, subsidises its cost to the tune of several million dollars per year. Nevertheless, over one million people die of malaria each year because they do not have access to effective drugs.

    #paludisme #science