THE ARTEMISININ ENTERPRISE - GHDonline

The third annual Artemisinin Enterprise (AE) Conference was co‐sponsored by the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation and the Roll Back Malaria partnership (RBM) and convened at
the University of York, UK in October 2008. It built on the experience and gains from earlier
AE meetings and broadened participation to include researchers, growers, policymakers,
regulatory experts, Product Development Partnerships (PDPs) and industry representatives.
The objective was to update the malaria community on project progress and work with
stakeholders to ensure a complementary deployment of the new technologies to meet the
projected global demand for ACTs. The stakeholders were invited to assess the impact of
the three new technologies on the ACT supply chain and provide a series of
recommendations on how best to ensure smooth and effective integration of products
derived from the new technologies into the supply chain so that they contribute to the
envisaged growth in demand for ACTs.
Assessment of the impact of the AE technologies by the stakeholders
The three new AE technologies should:
• increase the supply of high quality artemisinin to meet projected needs;
• lower the cost of artemisinin production with sustainable technologies;
• remove volatility in artemisinin prices by improving the reliability of and diversifying
artemisinin supply;
• develop novel synthetic artemisinin‐like compounds.
Stakeholders agreed that the technologies of the three AE partners have the potential to
contribute to the rapid acceleration in the manufacture and use of ACTs that will be
essential to meet the targets of the Global Malaria Action Plan, drawn up by the Roll Back
Malaria Partnership. Through underpinning the consistent supply of quality ACTs, the AE
technologies will play an important role in mitigating the risk of parasite resistance. The
stakeholders confirmed that the outputs from all three AE technologies will be essential to
satisfy the projected global demand for malaria treatments.
Recommendations for the Artemisinin Enterprise
The recommendations of the Conference are set out in detail in the report.
organisations tasked with progressing the issues are identified.
Those
For all AE partners:
The Conference considered it important that the outputs from the AE technologies should
be used only for the manufacture of high quality ACTs. A mechanism should be developed
in collaboration with RBM Procurement and Supply Chain Management Working Group
(RBM PSM) and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that outputs are not diverted to the
manufacture of other products.
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