Dried-leaf Artemisia annua: A practical malaria therapeutic for developing countries?

Table 5 Comparison of emerging antimalarial therapeutic technologies with plant-based artemisinin combination therapy

Technology	Advantages	Disadvantages
Synthetic AN[116]	Fully synthetic method giving AN = compound	Requires co-drug to obviate emergence of AN drug resistance
	Lowers AN cost compared to extraction	Not yet in production
		Needs sophisticated process
		Likely all under Western control
		Challenging patient compliance due to multiday dosing
Semi-synthetic AN[117]	Semi-synthetic method giving authentic AN	Requires co-drug to obviate emergence of AN drug resistance
	Lowers AN cost compared to extraction	Production began via Sanofi
		Needs sophisticated process
		Likely all under Western control
		Challenging patient compliance due to multiday dosing
OZ439[118]	Single dose cure insures patient compliance	Requires co-drug to obviate emergence of AN drug resistance
	In successful Phase 2 trials	Not yet in production
	Mechanism of action not the same as AN	Needs sophisticated process
	Probably low cost due to full synthesis	Likely all under Western control
pACT[20-24]	Has its own in planta co-drug to obviate emergence of AN drug resistance	Not yet in production
	Very low cost	Likely to meet push back from pharmaceutical industry
	Very consistent product	Challenging patient compliance due to multiday dosing
	Can be used to treat other diseases
	Can be locally owned, produced, managed, and distributed

AN: Artemisinin.