STORY: Chinese-made drug transforms malaria treatment in Kenya: researcher
SHOOTING TIME: Recent footage
DATELINE: Aug. 21, 2024
LENGTH: 00:01:45
LOCATION: Nairobi
CATEGORY: HEALTH

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): BERNHARDS OGUTU, Chief research officer, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)
3. various of researchers working
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): BERNHARDS OGUTU, Chief research officer, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)
5. various of researchers working
6. SOUNDBITE 3 (Chinese): WEN DEYONG, CEO, Fosun Pharma

STORYLINE:

A Kenyan researcher said that injectable artesunate, produced by a Chinese company, has significantly improved malaria treatment in his country.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): BERNHARDS OGUTU, Chief research officer, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)
"It has totally changed the way treatment of malaria is done because, currently, all the treatments are based on artemisinin, which are basically products that came from the Chinese research activities that have totally changed the way we treat malaria nowadays."

Artemisinin, discovered by Chinese scientists in the 1970s, has been recognized in many countries as a "magic drug" in malaria treatment.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): BERNHARDS OGUTU, Chief research officer, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)
"In Kenya, we introduced artemisinin-based combination therapy in 2004, but the real rollout happened in 2006. And with that, we have seen quite a big change in terms of the burden of disease and this has been quite an instrumental treatment that we have had.
We've had quite a number of patients that have basically lived because of this drug that was available, and that they could get them in time and get cured because if you have a drug that if it's efficacious, then you know so long as you have access to it in real good time then you are going to recover from the disease, because we have seen the numbers of deaths have gone down."

Approved by the WHO prequalification team, the drug can clear malaria-causing parasites from a patient's blood within 24 hours.

It's manufactured by Chinese pharmaceutical company Fosun Pharma.

SOUNDBITE 3 (Chinese): WEN DEYONG, CEO, Fosun Pharma
"Our vision is aligned with the global vision of eliminating malaria in Africa and worldwide. This has always been a shared vision and dream of all our colleagues at Fosun Pharma."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Nairobi.
(XHTV)