Zagaya

Programs: Ucb haas business school:zagaya worked with a team of students from the haas business school at uc berkeley to determine if we should use its 2nd generation fermentation technology to produce artemisinic acid in india, brazil, or both. The team developed a cost model for both the fermentation and chemistry processes, and evaluated multiple cmos to determine best fit for us.

world malaria day symposium:each year zagaya sponsors and organizes a full day symposium of speakers and posters related to the most recent research currently being done in malaria. The focus is work in the bay area that is targeted to malaria elimination. This was the 3rd year of this very successful symposium, and the programs for each year are available on our website.

gates challenge grant completion; new university of york project:the purpose of the phase i grant was to identify enzymes from a fungus that had been reported to make artemisinin (http://phdtree. Org/pdf/23411262-discovery-isolation-and-identification -of-antimalarials-from-fungal-endophytes/) and integrate those remaining steps into a previously-engineered yeast strain to produce artemisinin directly in a single step, thereby reducing the cost of ss-art. Unfortunately, we were unable to reproduce the fungal production of artemisinin early in the phase i grant period. So, we used the remaining time and money in the phase i grant to work with additional partners added to this phase ii application to begin to identify the remaining unknown steps in the artemisinin biosynthetic pathway in a. Annua. Although we were not funded for the phase 2 part of the original grant, we identified university of york as our partner and are continuing to identify enzymes in the a. Annua plant that can contribute to artemisinin production.

intern support for jlm:zagaya provided and supported an intern position at jlm for the summer of 2014. Jlm pharmaceuticals ltd is a start-up company in uganda dedicated to increasing access, and availability of infectious/chronic disease diagnostics and pharmaceutical products in fair, competitive, and innovative markets while emphasizing the need to empower customers to make informed buying decisions. Based on well-researched service delivery, this project developed a product management system model to monitor and evaluate the processes necessary to: 1) work with customers to understand their needs and support them to make decisions on available products that best-fit their needs and budgets; 2) coordinate procurement and installation of products; and, 3) periodically seek and relay feedback from both customers and manufacturers to continue providing a customer-centered service. Customers may include ministries of health and defense, health development partners, and private and public sector healthcare providers. The model was reviewed and will be replicated to other products carried by the company.

art meeting in china:the 8th international artemisinin conference responds to a recommendation of the 10th rbm/psm meeting 16-18 oct 2013, and echoes calls from artemisinin combination therapies (act) and artemisinin stakeholders. This conference is organized by aedes with the support of the roll back malaria partnership secretariat, the global fund, unitaid and path. The latest developments regarding the global production and demand forecasts for artemisinin will be presented and discussed. More than 120 participants attended, representing the growers, collectors of leaves, extractors, api/act manufacturers, donors and organizations from china, vietnam, east africa, madagascar, india and europe. Zagaya met with new potential manufacturers and established relationships with several. Upon return to the us, we provided research materials for them to begin art production. One manufacturer is now in contract negotiations for larger volumes of starting material in order to scale their methods.