Africa to grow anti-malarial plant

ZURICH – Novartis has teamed up with Kenya’s East African Botanicals (EAB) group to boost cultivation in Africa of a plant containing a key ingredient in the Swiss drugmaker’s anti-malarial Coartem drug.

The Artemisia annua plant, which grows wild in remote mountain regions of China, contains artemisinin; one of the two active ingredients in Coartem. Novartis, which provides Coartem to developing countries on a not-for-profit basis, said on Monday it would expand cultivation of the plant to more than 1 000 hectares in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda through its partnership with EAB.This would bring total production to some 10 000 hectares, Novartis said, enabling it to provide more than 100 million malaria treatments by the end of 2006.- Nampa-ReutersNovartis, which provides Coartem to developing countries on a not-for-profit basis, said on Monday it would expand cultivation of the plant to more than 1 000 hectares in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda through its partnership with EAB.This would bring total production to some 10 000 hectares, Novartis said, enabling it to provide more than 100 million malaria treatments by the end of 2006.- Nampa-Reuters