Combining original thinking of traditional Chinese medicine with modern technology, saving the lives of 40 million patients——
Contribute China to the elimination of malaria in the world (Big Health Observation)
In the 1940s, China reported more than 30 million cases of malaria every year.
70 years later, China has achieved 4 consecutive years of no reports of local infections since 2016, and officially obtained the World Health Organization's malaria elimination certification on June 30 this year.
This is a remarkable achievement.
In the historical process of eliminating malaria, China not only gave birth to the first Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou, at the same time, a series of new antimalarial drugs represented by the Chinese innovative drug artesunate have been helping to eliminate malaria worldwide. , To contribute "Chinese power" to the joint construction of a malaria-free world.
Chinese innovative drugs play an important role in the rescue of severe malaria
In 1972, Tu Youyou found in the 523 project (referred to as the "523" malaria control drug research project) that artemisinin can effectively kill malaria parasites. Because of its poor water solubility, the curative effect of malaria cannot be exerted. Optimal.
Later, Guilin Pharmaceutical Company was recommended by the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region government to join the 523 project to participate in the secondary research and development of artemisinin, and successfully invented artesunate in 1977.
This not only solves the problem of the water solubility of artemisinin, but also increases the curative effect of malaria by 5-7 times. It can be made into injections to rescue patients with severe malaria.
In 1987, artesunate was awarded the China X-01 first-class new drug certificate issued by the Ministry of Health, and artesunate for injection was also awarded the X-02 new drug certificate.
So far, Guilin Pharmaceutical has officially obtained the qualification for commercial production and sales of artesunate drugs, and industrialized artemisinin for the malaria treatment terminal market. This is also the world-renowned severe malaria treatment brand in the anti-malarial field today— —Artesun® Artesunate for injection.
This medicine has played an important role in the rescue of severe malaria. After Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize in Medicine, he became famous in Africa.
In 2010, the world's authoritative medical journal "The Lancet" released a report stating that the efficacy of artesunate for injection in Guilin South Medicine was significantly better than that of quinine, and it was recommended to countries to replace quinine in the treatment of severe malaria.
In 2015, the product was listed on the annual honor list of French "Prescription", becoming the first Chinese original drug to enter the list.
So far, the product has saved 40 million lives of severe malaria patients, most of whom are children under 5 years old.
Artesunate completely breaks the patent monopoly of international pharmaceutical companies on artemisinin
Many people do not know that artesunate, the original drug of Guilin Pharmaceutical, is an artemisinin antimalarial drug with independent intellectual property rights.
According to Su Li, co-president of Guilin Pharmaceuticals, recalled: more than 10 years ago, the artesunate tablets of Guilin Pharmaceuticals were mainly produced under the OEM label for Sanofi in France, and the one known in the African market was Sanofi’s Arsumax. (Artesunate tablets), Guilin Pharmaceutical, as a pharmaceutical manufacturer, hardly noticed.
Nevertheless, the patent right of artesunate has never been transferred, and it has always belonged to Guilin Pharmaceutical.
"At that time, the antimalarial drug market was basically occupied by multinational companies such as Novartis and Sanofi, and we wanted to build our own national brand, so we analyzed that their products were mainly for oral preparations for general malaria treatment. For this reason, we Adopting a brand differentiation strategy, focusing on the promotion of Artesun® (artesunate for injection) for the treatment of severe malaria. It is this product that made us succeed in the first battle." Su Li said.
On December 1, 2004, Guilin Pharmaceuticals submitted the artesunate pre-certification application materials to the World Health Organization.
In June 2005, the World Health Organization officially confirmed at the Arushan meeting in Tanzania that the originator of artesunate was Guilin Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (formerly Guilin Pharmaceutical Factory), the company has independent intellectual property rights; in December of the same year, Guilin On behalf of Chinese companies, Nanjing Pharmaceuticals has achieved a "zero" breakthrough in World Health Organization pre-supplier qualification certification.
This also means that the Chinese innovative drug artesunate has completely broken the patent monopoly of artemisinin by international giant pharmaceutical companies.
In order to promote further development of national brands in the international market, Guilin Pharmaceuticals has "two-pronged" in terms of quality management and market development.
Advocate a quality culture of "everyone is responsible for quality and insist on doing things that are responsible for patients", and internally implement a product life cycle quality management model of "two cycles of domestic and foreign markets and two drivers of lean manufacturing and R&D"; in Africa where malaria is high In the past 10 years, subsidiaries and offices have been established in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and French-speaking West Africa countries, responsible for the promotion and sales of local and surrounding areas. Artesunate for injection is an important factor that accounts for more than 90% of the global severe malaria field.
This Chinese pharmaceutical company successfully opened the international market with its core anti-malarial products. On the one hand, it reversed the past attitude of the international community to Chinese innovative drugs, and on the other hand, it also drove the international development of other domestic peer companies.
Since 2005, a total of 28 products of Guilin Pharmaceutical have passed the World Health Organization pre-certification, including 24 preparation products and 4 API products, and a total of more than 200 million artesunate injections have been supplied to the international market. ester.
The major breakthrough in the process of internationalization did not satisfy Guilin Pharmaceuticals, and the company continued to dig in the field of anti-malarial.
At present, the company’s antimalarial products have covered the entire treatment field of malaria prevention, general malaria treatment and severe malaria rescue. At the same time, it has the production capacity of raw materials, oral preparations, and injections. The treatment population covers adults, children and pregnant women. Medication crowd.
Aid to fight malaria in Africa and deepen the African market
"Although China has obtained the WHO's malaria elimination certification, half of the world's population is still at risk of malaria. In 2019, there are still 409,000 deaths from malaria worldwide. Our mission continues. As a company, our goal is more than just It is to help malaria patients around the world to restore their health, and more importantly, to help them no longer suffer from malaria. Therefore, Guilin Pharmaceutical has been devoted to research and development for many years, not only inventing Artesun®, a rescue drug for severe malaria recognized by the international mainstream market, but also in the past two years. It is the successful development of SPAQ-CO®Disp, a preventive drug for children's malaria. These two drugs have made a very important contribution to the decline of global malaria incidence and mortality." said Wang Wenxue, President of Guilin Pharmaceuticals.
Over the years, Guilin Pharmaceutical has taken advantage of its core products to implement the national “One Belt One Road” initiative, and actively cooperated with the Ministry of Commerce in implementing the “Aid Africa Anti-malarial” project.
Since 2006, the company has undertaken more than 100 aid projects from the Ministry of Commerce to Africa, involving more than 30 countries.
In addition, the company has joined hands with the world’s top experts in the field of malaria prevention and treatment to establish an expert resource library, and provide an online academic platform for medical staff in Africa through Internet-based multimedia interactions such as video conferences, and try to help Africa improve the level of anti-malarial health care, covering Kenya , Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso and other nearly 10 African countries and regions.
The innovation of artemisinin drugs represented by artesunate is an example of combining the original thinking of traditional Chinese medicine with modern science and technology to solve the world's medical problems with Chinese-style methods. It is of positive significance for promoting the construction of the "Belt and Road".
At present, the international community’s cognition of "Made in China" is mostly in the fields of electronic information technology. In fact, China's pharmaceutical industry has also developed rapidly in recent years.
Wang Wenxue said that they will create new advantages of Nanyao with technology, brand, quality and service as the core, and form a quality management bureau with obvious technical advantages in the product industry, sound management mechanism, stable quality and safety, and wide-ranging social influence. Colleagues, make unremitting efforts towards the ambitious goal of "jointly building a world without malaria".
"People's Daily Overseas Edition" (09th edition on September 28, 2021)
Our reporter Pang Geping