Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are the most effective treatment for Plasmodium falciparum infections—the deadliest form of malaria responsible for the vast majority of the estimated 608,000 malaria deaths reported in 2022.

Reliable access to ACTs is critical for malaria patients, but the key starting material for ACTs, artemisinin, is vulnerable to multiple market and supply chain risks, casting doubt over long-term affordable access to these lifesaving antimalarial treatments.

Developed more than a decade ago, semi-synthetic artemisinin (SSA) has great potential to address these market and supply chain risks but faces multiple barriers that prevent its wide adoption in ACT production.

This brief highlights SSA’s critical role in stabilizing the ACT market, barriers to SSA adoption and the actions that needs to be taken by stakeholders to remove these adoption barriers.