Zhou Yiqing (born 1929) is a professor of medicine at the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology of the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the China, People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five Military branch, service branches: the People's ...

Academy of Military Medical Sciences The Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS) of the PLA Academy of Military Science () is a Chinese military medical research institute. It was established in Shanghai in 1951. It has been based in Beijing since 1958. In October 2011 the drug ...

. He was one of the scientists who participated in the Project 523 of the Chinese Government under Chairman

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

. The project resulted in the discovery of artemisinins, a class of

antimalarial drugs Antimalarial medications or simply antimalarials are a type of antiparasitic chemical agent, often naturally derived, that can be used to treat or to prevent malaria, in the latter case, most often aiming at two susceptible target groups, young c ...

, from the medicinal plant ''

Artemisia annua ''Artemisia annua'', also known as sweet wormwood, sweet annie, sweet sagewort, annual mugwort or annual wormwood (), is a common type of wormwood native to temperate Asia, but naturalized in many countries including scattered parts of North Am ...

''. Zhou specifically worked on artemether, one of the derivatives of artemisinin. In 1985 he combined artemether with another drug lumefantrine into a single tablet, which he successfully used for the treatment of severe malaria. With the support of

Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss-American multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (global research).name="novartis.com">https://www.novartis.com/research-development/research-lo ...

, the drug was produced in 1991 under the brand name

Coartem Artemether/lumefantrine, sold under the trade name Coartem among others, is a combination of the two medications artemether and lumefantrine. It is used to treat malaria caused by ''Plasmodium falciparum'' that is not treatable with chloroquine. I ...

, and it became the first

artemisinin-based combination therapy Antimalarial medications or simply antimalarials are a type of antiparasitic chemical agent, often naturally derived, that can be used to treat or to prevent malaria, in the latter case, most often aiming at two susceptible target groups, young ...

. For this invention he and his team were awarded the

European Inventor Award The European Inventor Award(formerly European Inventor of the Year Award, renamed in 2010), are presented annually by the European Patent Office, sometimes supported by the respective Presidency of the Council of the European Union and by the Eur ...

of 2009 in the category "Non-European countries".

Biography

Zhou was a son of Chinese peasants. At age 16 he was enlisted in the

Eighth Route Army The Eighth Route Army (), officially known as the 18th Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China, was a group army under the command of the Chinese Communist Party, nominally within the structure of the Chines ...

of the

National Revolutionary Army The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; ), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army () before 1928, and as National Army () after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in China ...

of China. Having a medical background he served in the healthcare of the army. He was a nurse in the beginning, then the head of a nursing squad, assistant physician and eventually doctor-in-charge during the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific T ...

(1937–1945) and throughout the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on main ...

. After the civil war he studied medicine at the

Second Military Medical University The People's Liberation Army Naval Medical University (), also known as the PLA Second Military Medical University (SMMU) (), is a public university in Shanghai, China. It was founded in September 1949 and named in July 1951. It is a national ke ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

. He graduated in 1960, and then joined the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology of the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences as a researcher.

Development of Coartem

Zhou was among more than 500 Chinese scientists assigned to investigate for a new

antimalarial medication Antimalarial medications or simply antimalarials are a type of antiparasitic chemical agent, often naturally derived, that can be used to treat or to prevent malaria, in the latter case, most often aiming at two susceptible target groups, young ...

during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

. Established by Mao Zedong-led government in 1967, the collaborative research was called

Project 523 Project 523 (or task number five hundred and twenty-three; ) is a code name for a 1967 secret military project of the People's Republic of China to find antimalarial medications. Named after the date the project launched, 23 May, it addressed mala ...

. In 1972

Tu Youyou Tu Youyou (; born 30 December 1930) is a Chinese pharmaceutical chemist and malariologist. She discovered artemisinin (also known as , ) and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, a breakthrough in twentieth-century tropical medicine, sa ...

and her team discovered artemisinin (originally known as qinghaosu). A more stable compound artemether was synthesised from artemisinin. In 1981 the National Chinese Steering Committee for Development of Qinghaosu (artemisinin) and its Derivatives authorised Zhou to work on artemether. Zhou showed that artemether combined with another antimalarial lumefantrine was the most potent of all antimalarial drugs. He worked alone for four years, and was joined by Ning Dianxi and his team in 1985. They found that in

clinical trials Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel vaccines, drugs, dieta ...

the combined tablet (

artemether/lumefantrine Artemether/lumefantrine, sold under the trade name Coartem among others, is a combination of the two medications artemether and lumefantrine. It is used to treat malaria caused by ''Plasmodium falciparum'' that is not treatable with chloroquine. ...

) had very high cure rate of severe malaria, more than 95%, including in areas where

multi-drug resistance Multiple drug resistance (MDR), multidrug resistance or multiresistance is antimicrobial resistance shown by a species of microorganism to at least one antimicrobial drug in three or more antimicrobial categories. Antimicrobial categories are ...

is experienced. They applied for

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

in 1991, but granted only in 2002. In 1992 they got it registered as a new drug.

then noticed the new drug and made a deal for mass production. In 1999 Novartis obtained the international licensing rights and gave the brand name Coartem. It was approved by the US

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...

in 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhou, Yiqing 1929 births 20th-century Chinese inventors Chinese medical researchers Malariologists People of the Chinese Civil War Living people 20th-century Chinese scientists