New “Semisynthetic” Anti-Malarial Drug is Unneeded and Sets Dangerous Precedent While Threatening Farmer Livelihoods

SynBioWatch Press Release:

For Immediate Release

April 15, 2013

Contact: Lisa Archer, Gopal Dayaneni, or Tina Stevens, , (510) 982-1285, info@SynBioWatch.org

Pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Aventis and Amyris Biotech founder Jay Keasling have announced that they intend to replace the entire world supply of the World Health Organization’s preferred anti-malarial treatment derived from botanical artemisinin with a semisynthetic product which employs synthetic biology, a controversial, unregulated biotechnology.

Speaking at a conference in Cambridge, UK, Keasling said, “Moves are afoot to replace the entire world supply” of artemisinin, which is currently produced by thousands of farmers in Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, Mozambique, India, Vietnam and China who cultivate sweet wormwood, the natural source of artemisinin. The statement was confirmed in a release by Sanofi outlining their plan to begin large-scale production.

Currently unregulated, synthetic biology is an extreme form of genetic engineering that involves replacing the genetic material of microbes with entirely artificial human designed gene sequences, resulting in new organisms that are then ‘put to work’ as microbial ‘factories.’

The news raised a host of red flags among civil society organizations concerned...