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In continuation of my update, artemisinin...
The most effective anti-malaria drug can now be produced inexpensively
and in large quantities. This means that it will be possible to provide
medication for the 225 million malaria patients in developing countries
at an affordable price. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of
Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam and the Freie Universität Berlin have
developed a very simple process for the synthesis of artemisinin, the
active ingredient that pharmaceutical companies could only obtain from
plants up to now. The chemists use a waste product from current
artemisinin production as their starting substance. This substance can
also be produced biotechnologically in yeast, which the scientists
convert into the active ingredient using a simple yet very ingenious
method.....
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