盡管過去的二十年，科技進步十分迅速，但是瘧疾仍然是一個世界性的難題，每年瘧疾可以導致數百至數千人的死亡。新的、便宜且安全的藥品品種必須具備很多優良特征，如優於傳統治療方法如青蒿素，能夠治療易感染的群體，能夠通過阻斷傳輸載體中斷寄生蟲的生命周期，能夠起到預防感染的作用，能夠靶向滯留在肝髒的休眠瘧疾物種。發表於《自然評論:藥物發現》(Nature reviews. Drug discovery)2015年6月的一篇文章，指出過去10年來抗瘧疾藥物開發的途徑已經發生了改變，例舉了很多化合物，並評估了這些化合物的優缺點。

原文摘要：

Malaria medicines: a glass half full?

Wells TN1, van Huijsduijnen RH1, Van Voorhis WC2.

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Abstract

Despite substantial scientific progress over the past two decades, malaria remains a worldwide burden that causes hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. New, affordable and safe drugs are required to overcome increasing resistance against artemisinin-based treatments, treat vulnerable populations, interrupt the parasite life cycle by blocking transmission to the vectors, prevent infection and target malaria species that transiently remain dormant in the liver. In this Review, we discuss how the antimalarial drug discovery pipeline has changed over the past 10 years, grouped by the various target compound or product profiles, to assess progress and gaps, and to recommend priorities.