Scientists in Germany have demonstrated the large scale and inexpensive production of a range of antimalarial drugs, using a continuous flow system.
The processes yields several artemisinin-derived APIs that are key components in Artemisinin Combination Therapies
An important starting material for various anti-malarial drugs is artemisinin, which until recently could only be obtained by extraction from the plant Artemisia annua. As Peter Seeberger, from the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, explains, ‘the problem is that the drug is too expensive, such that in Africa and south east Asia between 40 and 50% of the artemisinin combination therapies are fake.’
Read the full article in Chemistry World»
Read the original journal article in ChemComm:
Continuous synthesis of artemisinin-derived medicines
Kerry Gilmore, Daniel Kopetzki, Ju Weon Lee, Zoltán Horváth, D. Tyler McQuade, Andreas Seidel-Morgenstern and Peter H. Seeberger
Chem. Commun., 2014, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C4CC05098C
