Three companies – namely the Vietnamese Mediplantex and the two Danish companies Dansk Famaceutisk Industri and Eurocare Danmark – have joined forces to improve and increase the production of the most efficient medicines available for the treatment of malaria.
The treatment is on artemisia – a substance extracted from the plant Artemisia Annua, which grows predominantly in Vietnam and China.
The Danish partners are to assist Mediplantex in upgrading its production facilities and processes to meet international “Good Manufacturing Practices” and “Good Laboratory Practices”. The Vietnamese company received assistance from the Danish partners through support from Danida’s Business-to-Business Programme.
The Joint Venture focuses on upgrading the production facilities to WHO standards and to register their product under the WHO pre-qualification programme. This will help the Joint Venture sell the medicine manufactured in Vietnam to the world market.
An important customer for the joint venture is international donor agencies. There agencies require the international certification that Mediplantex has been unable to acquire on its own.
Meeting Danish Standards
Danida’s Business to Business Programme will support training and implementation of Danish standards regarding environment and workers safety – an area of particular relevance related to the extraction process.
The project is expected to create 100 new jobs in Mediplantex over a period of three years and improve the working environment of 350 employees to Danish standards.
The business co-operation will enable Mediplantex to produce artemisinin-based malaria medicine globally, thereby generating more value addition to the product in Vietnam than previously. It is expected that the project will contribute to expanding the production of the plant Artemisia Annua, which is currently in short supply internationally.
About Malaria:
Malaria is an infectious disease, which cause about 350-500 million infections with humans and approximately 1.3 – 3 million deaths annually – mainly in the tropics.
It causes serious illness and death – especially among children and pregnant women. Prevention and treatment have become more difficult with the spread of drug-resistant parasites and insecticide-resistant mosquitoes. Thus, malaria remains one of the most serious global health problems.
