Nobel prize in Medicine 194- Penicillin was the first discovered antibiotic. Sir Alexander Flemming discovered the wonderful antibiotic penicillin from the fungus Penicillium notatum in 1928. However it took fourteen years to establish the efficacy of the new antibiotic( penicillin) in the treatment of bacterial diseases. Ernst Boris Chain and Howard Florey, two oxford researchers conclusively established the efficacy of penicillin in the treatment of different bacterial diseases. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1945 was awarded jointly to Sir Alexander Fleming, Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Howard Walter Florey "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases".

Nobel prize in Medicine -2015
The winners are: William C. Campbell, a microbiologist at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey; Satoshi Ōmura, a microbiologist at Kitasato University in Japan; and Youyou Tu, a pharmacologist at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in Beijing.
You You Tu received nobel prize for discovery of artesemisinin ,an effective treatment for malaria. In the 1960s, the main treatments for malaria were chloroquine and quinine, but they were proving increasingly ineffective. So in 1967, China established a national project against malaria to discover new therapies. Tu and her team screened more than 2,000 Chinese herbal remedies to search for drugs with antimalarial activity. An extract from the wormwood plant Artemisia annua proved especially effective and by 1972, the researchers had isolated chemically pure artemisinin.
Contribution of the Bangladeshi researchers:- Like penicillin it took long many years for artesemisinin to get established as an effective antimalarial drug. Like all other new drugs artesemisinin had to be go through animal experiment and different phases of clinical trials. The Malaria research group (MRG) established by two brilliant Bangladeshi researchers Prof. Ridwanur Rahman and Prof. MA Faiz made major contribution to the artesemisinin phase three clinical trial. It is very gratifying to note that this two Bangladeshi reserachers contributed the most to the phase three clinical trial of artesemisinin. Out of the 1800 patients studied in phase 3 clinical trial 800 clinical trials were carried out in Bangladesh.Two of the research findings of the MRG has been approved by the WHO in the treatment of Malaria 1. Artesunate injection should be used in place of the age old Quinine injection for the treatment of severe Malaria, 2- Per rectal Artesemisinin can be safely used in suspected severe malaria. The research finding of the MRG was published in the Celebrated Birtish Journal the Lancet in 2010. This article was awarded the best medical Publication of the year in 2010 by the British Medical Journal research group.
Dr. Ridwanur Rahman immediately after his post graduation was posted as the consultant physician at Khagrachari Sadar Hospital. Khagrachari is a remote hilly area where Malaria was rifein those days. Dr. Rahman was at a loss over the treatment of Malaria patients.There were many cases of resistant malaria and also cases of severe malaria where treament was less than satisfactory. At that time the only available treatment for severe malaria was Inj Quinine. However Qunine Injection was less effective and toxic. Prof. Rahmans endless quest for safe and effective treatment of Malaria led to his participation to the new drug artesemisinin clinical trial.
It goes without saying that Prof. Ridwanur Rahman and Prof. Faiz has made significant contribution towards establishment of Artesemisinin as a first line drug for treatment of Malaria. They have almost similar contribution as that of Chain and Florey who worked for establishing penicillin.
We are proud of you- Prof. Rahman and Prof. Faiz. You did not win the Nobel prize but you were part of it. We are especially proud because we are your close friend for long many years.
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