Police arrest fake malaria drug traders following scientific tests

Traders of fake malaria drugs in China have been arrested by police.

Scientists from across the world conducted tests on 391 samples of genuine and fake artesunate tablets collected across south-east Asia.

The joint initiative, titled Operation Jupiter, was coordinated by the International Criminal Police Organisation, the World Health Organization's Western Pacific Regional Office, and the Wellcome Trust-University of Oxford South East Asian Tropical Medicine Research Programme.

"Artesunate, as part of artemisinin-based combination therapy, is vital for malaria treatment and is one of the most effective weapons we have against this terrible scourge," said Dr Paul Newton, the study's lead author.

"Those who make fake anti-malarials have killed with impunity, directly through the criminal production of a medicine lacking active ingredients and by encouraging drug resistance to spread. If malaria becomes resistant to artesunate, the effect on public health in the tropics will be catastrophic."

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