A strain of baker’s yeast capable
of producing malaria drugs on an industrial scale has been successfully engineered
by the French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi. The company has already begun
cooking up the microbes and plans to generate 70 million doses this of the drug
this year. Malaria is a disease that sickens
millions of people each year, killing at least 650,000 people a year, mostly
children. This has become strain that was created has become the first
synthetic biology project that has been scaled up to industrial manufacturing.
While there has been a previous yeast created that is capable of producing the
artemisinic acid needed to make the drug but the yield has been dramatically
improved from 1.6 grams per liter to 25 grams per liter. This improvement came
from the discovery of three key enzymes in the sweet wormwood, which naturally
produces artemisinin, being introduced to the yeast. Because the drug is primarily plant derived
its cost can vary between $350 to 41200 per kilogram of the active ingredient
because the botanical supply is inconsistent. The synthetic process can run
year round and takes 3 months vs. 15 months for the plant-based methods. Sanofi
aims to produce 60 tons of the material next year which is equal to 120 million
courses of treatment and have pledged to sell it non-profit.
Being able to mass produce a cure
for malaria will greatly improve the overall health and death rate in the areas
that are affected by the deadly disease. The cure will cost less because of a
greater supply and people will be able to live their lives knowing that if they
are to get the infected with malaria that death is no longer the most common
option. With the advances in technology, hopefully we will see an eradication
of malaria.
No comments:
Post a Comment