Artemisinin development in Vietnam

Early 1960s, the Vietnam war between Northern Gorvernment against US and Southern Government became fieciously with a lot of solder died in both sides.

The dead toll was not only caused by fighting in the batle fields but also by malaria and other tropical disease incurred when mobilizing soldiers through jungles.

In the North side, the Army commanders and ex-president Ho Chi Minh sat back with Chinese army advisor to find solutions. They decided to work on malaria control and started a malaria control project in 1962. 

At that time, dry leaves of artemisina annua, a brand of Arteraceae family, was used as herbal medicine to treat malaria incurred soldiers as instructed in ancient pharmacopoeia.

In the following years, artemisina annua leaves in combination with new invention of Chloroquine, Fansidar and Mefloquine were medicinal solution for malaria in Vietnam.

In 1980s, scientists found out that the treatment was not effective like it had been before due to immune effect from malaria parasite, P. Falciparum against the above mentioned substances. Scientists also discovered a sesquiterpene compound, artemisinin with high potency against malaria parasite and the compound could be extracted in substantial amount from artemisia annua leaves.

A mandate from the Government was to develop a technology of extraction for artemisinin.  That mandate was implemented by group of Vietnamese researching students in Soviet Union and other European countries.

 Prof. Pham Gia Dien studied Chemistry in Moscow National University in Soviet Union 1967-1973. He specialized in extraction of natural product from medicinal herbal plants. In 1985-1989, he was sent to Scientific Academy of Bulgaria to carry out a PhD. research on Artemisinin technology. During that period, with direction of Prof. Ilia E. Davidson, Scientific Academy of Bulgaria, he finished dozen projects on artemisia bio-agronomy, artemisinin extraction and artemisinin derivations. Since 1990, he has been the director of Center of Medicinal and Biochemistry, Vietnam National Scientific Academy. He was certified by national scientific committee for tilte of Professor in 2004. His contribution could be briefly presented as following:

1985: Started research on Artemisia bio-agronomic research

1987: Registered Artemisinin Extraction tech. in Bulgaria (N.43879 dated 18 Mart 88)

1988: Produced and sent first 2.0 kg Artemisinin from Bulgaria to Vietnam

1990: Built the first extraction plant in Vietnam (1 ton biomass per day capacity)

1991: Produced 1 ton artemisinin

1992: Produce 3 tons artemisinin

Up to present: Implemented over 20 tech. transfer projects in Vietnam and Laos.

Vietnam has achieved great development in malaria control. Since using artemisinin for malaria treatment in 1991, the annual dead toll was reduced from 4.636 to 375 in 1994 and about 10-20 dead from 2000 to 2009. The country population is of 84 million. It can be said that malaria in Vietnam has been under controlled now. For this contribution, Prof. Pham Gia Dien was granted Ho Chi Minh award for his malaria fighting in Vietnam, 2005.

There are 20 artemisinin extraction plants in Vietnam now with total capacity of 250 tons biomass per day. For this capacity, Vietnam can supply up to 75 tons artemisnin product to the world. Artemisinin produced in Vietnam is of high quality with over 99% purity, conformed to International Pharmacopoeia, the third edition./.