Low-cost malaria drug to combat fakes

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (UPI) -- Inexpensive legitimate distribution of a leading malaria-fighting drug has begun in Asia to combat ineffective counterfeit medications, officials say.

A strain of malaria on the Thailand-Cambodian border has become resistant to the drug artemisinin, the current treatment of the disease, Time magazine reported. The drug is derived from sweet wormwood, a naturally growing herb in Southeast Asia.

Artemisinin has been the preferred treatment for more than 30 years. Now malaria's deadliest strain, Plasmodium falciparum, is resistant because the parasite has had time to adapt, so artemisinin is being given in combination with another drug, Time says.

Many drugs along the Thai-Cambodian border are counterfeit., the magazine says. To combat this, the Global Fund, with a multimillion-dollar contribution from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the global health community and various governments, signed-off on a $220 million-plus plan called Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria. It will distribute quality anti-malarial combination drugs for $0.05 a dose, hoping to drive out counterfeit drug suppliers, Time reported.

"No one will want to sell counterfeits when the real doses are 5 cents," says Duong Socheat, director of Cambodia's National Malaria Center.

Malaria is the third-deadliest infectious disease behind HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.