Chinese medical scientist Tu Youyou joined Omura in winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering artemisinin that is used in drugs to treat malaria. The younger Jiang was appointed deputy director of the largest and most prestigious scientific research organizations in China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 1999, merely six years after returning to China after completing his doctoral degree in Philadelphia.
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Denis Simon, an expert on science in China, discusses this with Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson.
Traditional and alternative medicine were once criticized as unorthodox and derided as quackery, but has since become more commonly accepted in recent decades.
The 84-year-old Tu received half of the 8 million Swedish krona (US$960,000) prize for her key contributions to the development artemisinin – which has been credited with saving millions of lives in tropical regions across the world – during the Cultural Revolution.
The pharmacologist utilized artemisinin, a drug extracted from sweet wormwood, which has reduced mortality rates for malaria patients.
The other half was awarded to Tu for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against malaria.
“The Artemisinin is the only known anti-malarial medicine to which Plasmodium Falciparum species, the deadly malaria parasite, has not yet developed resistance”, he said.
So the Nobel Prize is not only acknowledging this complete transformation of a Chinese herb through modern biomedical science into something powerfully efficacious, but also the millions of lives saved because of its successful application worldwide, particularly in the developing world.
Speaking to the state news agency, Liu Qingquan, the president of the Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, praised the value of local wisdom and traditional medicine.
As the domestic stock market was not trading during the seven-day National Day holiday break, the Nobel Prize news’ impact on Shenzhen-and Shanghai-listed artemisinin suppliers is yet to be seen.
Ironically, Tu said she wasn’t surprised with her win because “this was an honor not for me alone, but for all Chinese scientists”. So how should we interpret this arguably seismic shift in global attention on traditional Chinese medicine?
In the question-and-answer session after the announcement at the Karolinska Institute, which awards the Nobels, one of the panelists emphasized not just the quality of Tu’s scientific research, but also the value of recorded empirical experience in the past.
Interestingly, the sudden championing of Dr Tu’s long forgotten achievements has been documented in a few Chinese media. “If such characteristics cannot fully account for her being rejected by CAS, they can at least say something about her integrity as a scientist”. Tu reported her findings to the government in March 1972, and in 1973 the treatment was successfully tested in southwest China’s Yunnan province.
The People’s Daily also noted the irony that “a scientist who is not institutionally admitted wins the highest worldwide acknowledgement” and suggested it was “high time we reconsider our standards and procedure of granting membership of CAS”.
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The three awardees share a common field of interest in parasitic therapy, and their recognition is a reflection of the groundbreaking nature of their work in revolutionizing medicine and physiology.
