Dr. Hale explained that diseases such as malaria and diarrhea, which are endemic in the developing world, afflict hundreds of millions of people, but affordable medicines are a major barrier to treatment. With advances in biotechnology, industry could achieve humanitarian goals and contribute to strengthening economies that ultimately benefit everyone.
As a step in that direction, malaria medicines will be among the first drugs to be manufactured through an innovative process developed by fellow panelist Jay D. Keasling, Ph.D., Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Keasling's team engineered a biotechnology process to make artemisinin, an anti-malarial compound. It is simpler and less expensive than today's laborious plant harvesting processes. This biotech process could be applied to several other kinds of pharmaceutical compounds which are otherwise expensive to synthesize or costly to extract from natural sources.
"By focusing first on the developing world, especially children, a healthier generation leads to greater prosperity, less dependence on foreign aid, and ultimately, creates new markets," Dr. Hale said. "The dynamics for significant change are underway for the private and public sectors, and business community to achieve mutually inclusive goals. We can all participant in and benefit from addressing global health inequities."
The World Health Organization recommends t
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Contact: Joanne Hasegawa
jhasegawa@oneworldhealth.org
415-421-4700
Institute for OneWorld Health
11-May-2004