A upsurge in the research field of "recovery" of Artemisinin Market in the world

Business news on July 11 Artemisinin APIs, which have been neglected for the past two years, have become hot again since last year: many international charitable funds, such as Clinton Foundation and global fund, have joined in the procurement of artemisinin preparations By the end of 2009, the largest artemisinin plantation and artemisinin API production base in China -- Chongqing market, the price of artemisinin APIs has recovered to 2005 At the annual level, the price per kilogram has reached 2500 yuan, and the purchase price of fresh grass has rapidly increased to 6 yuan per kilogram (only 0.6 yuan per kilogram two years ago) At the same time, there is also an upsurge of artemisinin development in the international pharmaceutical community It is estimated that the annual consumption of artemisinin APIs in the world is 120-140 tons, of which about 110 tons are produced in China and 20-30 tons in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, India and Uganda However, the planting area and artemisinin production of Artemisia annua in these countries have increased significantly in recent years The export of artemisinin APIs in China is largely restricted by two major Western pharmaceutical manufacturers, Novartis in Switzerland and Sanofi in France, which are suppliers of artemisinin preparations formulated by the United Nations Although dozens of Chinese companies produce artemisinin APIs, they have no right to directly export artemisinin preparations This is because African governments with malaria epidemics have no money to buy antimalarial drugs such as artemisinin preparations, and can only rely on the sponsorship of the United Nations, with the money from international organizations such as who After receiving the who order, Novartis and Sanofi went to China to purchase downstream artemisinin products such as artemether or artesunate, which were processed into compound preparations and then supplied to African market Once who reduces the purchase of artemisinin preparations due to funding constraints and other reasons, the two enterprises will reduce or stop the purchase of artemisinin downstream products in China This is also the main reason for the serious backlog of artemisinin APIs in China from 2007 to 2008 At that time, due to a large backlog of artemisinin APIs, artemisinin production enterprises around the world stopped purchasing fresh Artemisia annua Artemisinin farmers suffered heavy losses, resulting in a sharp reduction in the total area of Artemisia annua cultivation in 2009 - 90% less than the peak period The market is warming up, and the international market is changing rapidly In 2009, the international artemisinin API market suddenly heats up Many international charity funds have joined the artemisinin preparation procurement army, buying artemisinin products and giving them to African governments China's artemisinin API industry has also begun to walk out of the downturn At present, there are two kinds of artemisinin preparations produced in China: artemether, the exclusive product developed by Kunming Pharmaceutical (600422) factory, and artesunate produced by enterprises headed by Guilin South pharmaceutical Co., Ltd are all based on artemisinin With the gradual recovery of artemisinin API market, several large domestic enterprises engaged in artemisinin production in the early stage, such as Shanghai Fosun, Guangyao group and Hubei Enhua biology, have started a new round of production expansion It is reported that Guangyao group plans to expand the production scale of artemisinin API to 80 tons per year, and Hubei Enhua biology and Shanghai Fosun have their own production expansion plans However, at present, only Kunming Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd and Guilin South pharmaceutical Co., Ltd in China have obtained the qualification of suppliers of artemisinin preparations Other enterprises can only "borrow ships to go to sea", that is, export their products through the orders of qualified foreign pharmaceutical companies The upsurge of development is worthy of the attention of Chinese enterprises Artemisinin, as an antimalarial drug, has been recognized by more and more countries A upsurge of artemisinin development has recently arisen in the field of Western pharmaceutical research According to foreign media reports, the University of California, Berkeley is studying a new process of "fermentation semi synthesis" to obtain artemisinin APIs (just as they used the "fermentation semi synthesis" process to obtain the APIs of statins to reduce blood lipid) It is said that the pilot process of fermentation production has been successful If the production of artemisinin APIs can be realized through this process, then the United States can significantly increase the production of artemisinin APIs and further reduce the price Botanists at the University of York in the UK are conducting rapid breeding experiments on Artemisia annua, the raw material for artemisinin extraction They are trying to use bioengineering methods to make artemisinin content in Artemisia annua from the current 5% ~ 8% More than doubled It is understood that there is a special "peroxide group" in the molecular structure of artemisinin Western pharmaceutical researchers believe that it is this "peroxide group" that determines the unique anti Plasmodium mechanism of artemisinin Now, researchers at the Institute of tropical diseases, Monash University, Switzerland, are stepping up the development of artemisinin "peroxide group", a new compound, which they call "the next generation of artemisinin derivatives new antimalarial drugs", and they have high hopes Once artemisinin "peroxide group" passes clinical trials and becomes a new drug on the market, it will pose a great threat and challenge to all kinds of artemisinin preparations in the international market However, the international pharmaceutical community estimates that at least in the last three to five years, the "artemisinin peroxide group" scientific research project of Swiss scientists is unlikely to make a breakthrough Therefore, the international artemisinin API market will still be a natural source of artemisinin "unified world" According to the latest report of who, in the past 10 years, the number of malaria patients in the world has increased unabated It is estimated that there are at least 400 million people at present, of which Africa accounts for 65% According to a recent UN official, the total sales of artemisinin in the international market will reach more than $2 billion this year and next This is undoubtedly a good thing for China, the main producer of artemisinin APIs in the world Note: artemisinin is the extract of Artemisia annua, a special plant in China It is a new type of plant antimalarial drug developed independently by Chinese scientists in the early 1970s with independent intellectual property rights Before the advent of artemisinin, there were only a few antimalarial drugs on the international market, such as quinine and its derivatives and pyrimethamine Because these antimalarial drugs have been used by the international medical community for more than half a century, Plasmodium has developed serious resistance to commonly used antimalarial drugs all over the world The emergence of artemisinin, invented by Chinese scientists, provides the world's medical community with a sharp weapon against drug-resistant Plasmodium In the late 1990s, the World Health Organization (who) officially approved the downstream artemisinin products such as "artemether" produced by Kunming Pharmaceutical Factory of China and "artesunate" developed by South Guilin Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd as new preparations of antimalarial drugs, thus laying the foundation for China's artemisinin APIs to enter the international market In the next 10 years, 69 governments around the world announced that artemisinin preparations made in China would be included in the list of first-line antimalarial drugs.