Malaria is caused by parasites that are transmitted through infected mosquito bites, and disproportionately affects people in poorer parts of the world. Unfortunately, effective malaria treatments are too expensive for many of those affected by malaria to access. Because of this scarcity, counterfeit medications are all too common: 50% of malaria medicine in Africa and Southeast Asia is fraudulent medicine. 

Antimalarial medication is created by turning the plant Artemisia annua into a pharmaceutical, through a long and complex supply chain that suffers from an enormous, and increasing, imbalance between supply and demand. At each stage of any supply chain, profits must be made, which drives up the price of the final product. While for many people in wealthier countries, antimalarials may be relatively affordable, for those most affected by malaria, the cost is unattainably high.

The combination of relatively high costs and insufficient supply has paved the way for the strong counterfeit medicine trade, and has contributed to the hundreds of thousands of completely avoidable deaths that malaria causes every year.

Studies, such as those below, have shown that ingesting the plant itself is effective against malaria-causing parasites, as well as a range of other devastating parasites that primarily affect the poorest parts of the world, such as leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis. As the plant is naturally a combination therapy, it is even, at times, more effective than the pharmaceuticals, eliminating resistant parasites with the same lack of side effects.