A remarkable story of partnership
A pioneering collaboration between Novartis and Chinese partners
Artemisinin, the parent compound of the artemether component of Coartem®, is derived from the plant sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua). Its first recorded use was in China in 168 BC for the treatment of fever. In 1967, the Chinese Army screened more than 10,000 traditional remedies in the search for treatment of malaria-stricken soldiers in the Vietnam war. Artemisia annua proved successful, and by the mid-1970s, the active ingredient – artemisinin – had been isolated and proved to be a potent, rapidly-acting antimalarial agent.63
A derivative of artemisinin called artemether is now part of the dual combination of drugs used in Coartem® and Coartem® Dispersible.
Artemether is rapidly effective and quickly eliminated from the body,24 raising the possibility of some parasites persisting after treatment and the emergence of drug resistance. Chinese researchers at the Beijing Academy of Military Medical Sciences in the 1980s combined artemether with lumefantrine, the second active ingredient in Coartem® and Coartem® Dispersible. Lumefantrine kills remaining parasites in the blood stream and has the advantage of never having been used as monotherapy treatment, unlike other companion drugs used in ACTs.
In 1990, Chinese officials met with Novartis (then Ciba-Geigy) and ultimately agreed to develop, test and manufacture Coartem® through a joint venture – the first collaboration of its kind in Chinese history.
The Chinese government presented the prestigious China International Science and Technology award to Dr. Daniel Vasella in 2005. In 2009, Prof Zhou Yiqing from the Microbiology and Epidemiology Institute in Beijing received a ‘European Inventor of the Year’ award from the European Patent Office and European Commission's DG Enterprise and Industry for developing Coartem®.
Sharing technologies and expertise
During the development and early production of Coartem®, Chinese researchers did not have access to technologies available in the West. Significant technology transfer from Novartis enabled its Chinese partners to redesign local production facilities and upgrade quality assurance systems to comply with international standards of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and to build new factories. Coartem® is produced by Novartis in China and the US.
