Chinese-made drug transforms malaria treatment in Kenya

Published: October 18,2023

Beaming with excitement, dozens of patients braved the humid afternoon weather to queue for a Chinese-manufactured anti-malaria injectable drug at a private hospital in the western Kenyan county of Kisumu, where the tropical disease is endemic.

Manufactured by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Fosun Pharma, the injectable artesunate has significantly improved malaria treatment in Kisumu and the wider Lake Victoria basin, according to local health officials and doctors. Kenya is one of 18 African countries where artesunate for injection, marketed under the brand name Argesun, has been introduced to help treat severe malaria in children.  

Approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) prequalification team in June, the drug can clear malaria-causing parasites from a patient’s blood within 24 hours. It is affordable, highly effective, and safe, said Walter Otieno, a pediatrician and malaria researcher at the Kenya Medical Research Institute. Through collaboration with a local subsidiary, Fosun Pharma has expanded the supply of the injectable malaria drug in both public and private health facilities, assisting Kenya in its fight against a disease that disproportionately affects children and pregnant mothers.

Yu Jun, the vice president of Guilin Pharma, a subsidiary of Fosun Pharma, said the development of artesunate injectable drugs aligns with the objectives of China-Africa health collaboration to combat the continent’s high malaria burden. “We support and cooperate with clinical study institutions, and through their clinical studies, we have confirmed that our product is safe and effective and can be widely used to treat severe malaria and save lives in African countries,” Yu said.  

Fosun Pharma’s second-generation artesunate for injection represents an improvement over artemisinin-based combination therapies, which have been WHO-recommended drugs for treating malaria. The Chinese firm has also initiated a “Future Stars Program for talent training in Africa” aimed at enhancing the skills of local healthcare workers in response to an initiative of the Chinese government to promote talent development in the continent.

According to a policy brief from Fosun Pharma, the program will also include scholarships and internship opportunities for Africa’s frontline healthcare workers to better equip them to deal with deadly infectious diseases like malaria. Ahead of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation scheduled for Beijing from Tuesday to Wednesday, the battle against malaria has emerged as part of China-Africa health collaboration, yielding fruitful outcomes. 

Through the successful implementation of its 1-3-7 strategy, China was declared malaria-free by the WHO in June 2021, inspiring African countries to adopt the same best practice. The strategy calls for reporting a malaria case on day one, confirming a case after three days, and halting the disease’s spread on the seventh day. It was implemented in Tanzania with China’s assistance from 2016 to 2018, leading to a significant reduction in malaria cases in endemic districts, according to the WHO.

Malaria is responsible for approximately one percent of Africa’s annual gross domestic product loss, with 215 million cases and 384,000 deaths attributed to the disease in the continent in 2019, according to the WHO. In Kenya, where 6.7 million malaria cases and 4,000 deaths were reported in 2021, the increased availability of Chinese-manufactured artesunate has significantly reduced fatalities among severely ill children, according to Kibor Keitany, the head of the National Malaria Control Program. China-Africa health cooperation has flourished in line with the goals of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, yielding positive results, including improved responses to infectious diseases like malaria.

Robert Opoka, a professor of pediatrics and child health at Nairobi’s Aga Khan University, said Sino-African collaboration in health research, technology transfer, training and innovations has been a game-changer in the fight against malaria. “China has been able to extend its experience in managing malaria and producing drugs for treating the disease to Africa,” Opoka said, commending Chinese pharmaceutical firms for producing highly effective anti-malaria drugs.

Xinhua