World Malaria Day (25 April) : Developer of "Coartem" nominated for European Inventor award

Munich, 24 April 2009 -- Ahead of World Malaria Day (25 April), the European Patent Office (EPO) and European Commission have announced that the Chinese scientist who developed a leading anti-malaria treatment marketed under the name Coartem has been nominated for the European Inventor of the Year 2009 award.

Professor Zhou Yqing was nominated in the "non-European countries" category, which recognises the important contribution that inventors from overseas make towards innovation in Europe. In 1996 Zhou and a team of researchers at the Microbiology and Epidemiology Institute in Beijing - Dianxi Ning, Shufen Wang, Deben Ding, Guofu Li, Chengqi Shan and Guangyu Liu - developed Coartem, a cheap and effective anti-malaria treatment based on an ancient herbal remedy used in traditional Chinese medicine. Coartem, made by Novartis, is now regarded as the most effective treatment for this debilitating tropical disease which still kills nearly a million people every year -  i.e. some 2,500 a day - of which the vast majority are children.

"Without patents, some important innovations might never see the light of day," said EPO President Alison Brimelow. "This is especially true in the pharmaceutical sector," she continued. "Patent protection provides companies and individuals with an important incentive to develop and bring to market new ideas and inventions - including life-saving drugs."

The award winners will be announced by Alison Brimelow and Czech President Václav Klaus at a ceremony in Prague on 28 April. Prizes will be handed out in four categories: industry, SMEs/research, non-European countries and lifetime achievement. 

Previous winners include Peter Grünberg (2006), who has since won the Nobel prize for physics, and Erik De Clercq (2008), the developer of a life-saving anti-AIDS drugs cocktail.

Background: European Inventor of the Year

The "European Inventor of the Year" stands out among the many prizes for innovation due to its geographical scope and unique selection procedure. When selecting the nominees, the independent international jury can rely on the results of an open competition among candidates and on the expertise of examiners at the national patent offices and the EPO. The jury chose from among successful inventions patented by the EPO before 1 January 2004. The award is purely symbolic and does not include a cash prize or other material reward.

The awards honour inventors who have made a defining and lasting contribution to technical progress in Europe and so to strengthening the European economy. The "European Inventor of the Year" is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the EPO and was launched in 2006.

Contact:

Rainer Osterwalder
Director Media Relations
European Patent Office
Erhardtstr. 27 | D-80469 Munich
Tel.: +49 (0)89 2399-1820
Fax: +49 (0)89 2399-2850
rosterwalder@epo.org