Dafra Pharma International NV has joined forces with the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands to retrieve the raw material for antimalarials from genetically modified chicory. The results of this research will be used to lower the price of the basic raw material to such an extent that its treatments of the African
patient will soon cost no more than half a dollar.
Malaria is perfectly treatable, rapid diagnosis and treatment with an ACT can cure a patient
before the disease becomes life-threatening. Since the malaria parasite has become resistant to the
older, more conventional antimalaria treatments such as chloroquine, SP etc., the WHO recommends
ACTs as the first-line treatment in the African countries. Artemisinin, however, is an expensive plant
extract. This means that an ACT these days easily costs ten times more than a treatment with e.g.
chloroquine. ACTs are very expensive for the African patients. This means that the price of the ACTs,
and thus the price of artemisinin, needs to drop sharply.
The idea of producing molecules via genetic modification is not new. Based on a Dutch patent Prof.
Jay Keasling (Berkely University, California, USA) & One World Health already made the first steps in
the biosynthetic production of a precursor of artemisinin. They introduced the genetic information for
production of artemisinic acid (obtained from Artemisia annua) in yeast. Via genetic modification of
microorganisms and via fermentation they hope to produce artemisinic acid on an industrial scale.
Earlier research by Plant Research International, commissioned by Dafra Pharma International NV,
followed a different path along the same lines of thought, though not using microorganisms, but plants.
The Wageningen research showed that chicory produces considerable amounts of sesquiterpene
lactones which give the plant its bitter taste. The Wageningen scientists, headed by Prof. Harro
Bouwmeester and Dr. Maurice Franssen, could demonstrate that the enzymes that in chicory are
involved in the production of the bitter compounds are also capable of performing other reactions. Via
a diversion of the biosynthesis of bitter compounds they intend to produce the chemical precursor for
artemisinin (dihydroartemisinic acid) in the roots of chicory. The group of Prof. Bouwmeester has
shown in a wide range of plant species that diversion of the biosynthesis of terpenes can be carried
out very efficiently.
New research of Plant Research International, also for Dafra Pharma International NV, is now being
initiated to see how the precursor of artemisinin can best be produced in chicory. Dafra Pharma
International NV has the chemical expertise required for the conversion, after extraction, of the
precursor into artemisinin that is directly suitable for the production of ACTs.
The Belgian-Netherlands research will run parallel with that of Prof. Keasling in the USA. In fact both
studies are complementary, with the same human objective: the large-scale production of a biosynthetically produced artemisinin which should lead to inexpensive, but high-quality, effective and safe antimalaria treatments (ACTs) for Africa.
To free Africa from malaria some 400 million treatments per year will be needed. Plant Research International and Dafra Pharma International NV will therefore continue their close cooperation in the optimization of the biosynthesis technology for the industrial production of artemisinin.
In the context of this cooperation a patent assigned to Plant Research International will be sold to
Dafra Pharma International NV. This will allow the use of the knowledge acquired by Plant Research
International in a product-oriented process.
Plant Research International and Dafra Pharma International have chosen inulin chicory as artemisinin
production platform because it contains some essential precursors and enzymes and is a wellestablished
industrial crop for a.o. non-food applications, which means that the entire chain of largescale agricultural production, including extraction, is already present, in Belgium as well as in the Netherlands.
