Current News

Contact | Print version | PDF version | Send article | RSS-Feed

Genetically modified chicory brings hope to African malaria patients

10 May 2007 - Dafra Pharma International NV has commissioned Plant Research International (PRI) to start new research to optimize the production method of artemisinin via genetically modified chicory plants. This research should result in inexpensive, large-scale production of artemisinin under controllable conditions. Artemisinin is a basic raw material used in ACTs (Artemisinin based Combination Therapies), the latest generation and most effective antimalaria treatment according to the WHO (World Health Organization of the UN).
 
Dafra Pharma International NV wants to use the results of this research to lower the price of the basic raw material to such an extent that its treatments of the African patient will soon cost no more than half a dollar.
 
In the context of this cooperation a patent assigned to Plant Research International will be sold to Dafra Pharma International NV. This will allow the use of the knowledge acquired by Plant Research International in a product-oriented process.
 
Plant Research International and Dafra Pharma International have chosen inulin chicory as artemisinin production platform because it contains some essential precursors and enzymes and is a well-established industrial crop for a.o. non-food applications, which means that the entire chain of large-scale agricultural production, including extraction, is already present, in Belgium as well as in the Netherlands.
 
Dr FH Jansen, R&D Director of Dafra Pharma International NV, states that it must be the objective of Dafra Pharma International NV to achieve inexpensive, large-scale industrial production of artemisinin under controllable conditions via the root of the chicory plant in three to five years time.