January 26-February 2, 2009
‘Creative Capitalism’ Versus Malaria
Bill Gates has recently funded research into an inexpensive solution in the fight against malaria, which kills over 1 million people per year. The herb, Artemisinin from the wormwood plant, is the only truly effective treatment against malaria. The cost of the traditional treatment was too expensive for the masses infected with malaria. Jay Keasling from the University of California at Berkeley, with financing from Bill Gates, was able to synthesize the chemical and now produce it for an affordable cost.
Because this is not funded by Big Pharma, the cost of development will not be passed on to the consumer. Because it is not chemically changed, it is not patentable and will never be picked up by the pharmaceutical industry. Here we have an herb that has never shown to have any resistance build-up with its use against malaria. This will not add to the millions of tons of antibiotic refuse ending up in our water, and subsequently into our bodies. Applause to this great effort!
My doctor says I can get all the vitamins and minerals I need from my food. What is your opinion on this?
I used to say the same thing to my patients, back in the days before I studied healthy alternatives. It is the party line of allopathic medicine, although that is starting to change. Here's the bottom line, and I'll follow up with some info on what allopaths are now doing:
3 responses so far ↓
1 Joya Pramanik // Jan 26, 2009 at 3:47 pm
A small company named Amyris was critically responsible for making this happen supported by the Gates Grant.
2 Dixie Ellett // Feb 6, 2009 at 7:51 am
If the HERB Artemisinin from, the wormwood plant is the cure for Malaria, then why has it been synthesized for use in humans. Wouldn’t this be contridictory?? Would our bodies react the same with synthesized medicine? Why then would this be so great?
Questions, rather than comments.
3 Dr. Stan Gardner // Feb 7, 2009 at 6:16 am
Joya, Thanks for that information and to this company for their contribution.
Dixie, Artemisinin is too expensive to produce when extracted from the plant, with all the expense of growing the plant and the extraction process. The laboratory is able to make a ‘bioidentical’ herbal match less expensively. As long as the chemically synthesized form is indeed the active component, the synthesized version will work. Unfortunately, sometimes the herb has other compounds, identified or not, that is part of its effectiveness that is not found in the synthesized version.
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