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Project 523
The Project 523 (or task number five hundred and twenty-three; ) is a code name for the secret military project of the People's Republic of China during and after the Cultural Revolution, for antimalarial medications, which were urged in the Vietnam War. The name stood for 23rd of May, the day the project was launched in 1967. It was aimed at finding new drugs for malaria, the disease which claimed more lives than the actual battles. At the behest of Hồ Chí Minh, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (then North Vietnam), Zhou Enlai, the Premier of the People's Republic of China, convinced China's Chairman Mao Zedong to start a mass project for development of new antimalarial drug "to keep () allies' troops combat-ready", as they put down in the meeting minute. More than 500 Chinese scientists were recruited. The project was divided into two streams, one for developing synthetic compounds, and the other for investigating traditional Chinese medicine. The latter proved to be the more fruitful, directly resulting in the discovery and development of a class of new antimalarial drugs called artemisinins. It was officially terminated in 1981.
For their high efficacy, safety and stability, artemisinins such as artemether and artesunate became the drugs of choice in falciparum malaria. Their combination drugs are advocated by the World Health Organization, and are included in the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. Among the scientists of the project, Zhou Yiqing and his team at the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology of the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences, were awarded the European Inventor Award of 2009 in the category "Non-European countries" for the development of Coartem (artemether-lumefantrine combination drug). Tu Youyou of the Qinghaosu Research Center, Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, received both the 2011 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award and 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her role in the discovery of artemisinin.
== Background ==
The Vietnam War was fought between the North Vietnam (supported by the Communist countries such as Soviet Union and China) and the South Vietnam (supported by the United States and its allies). The conflicts started in 1954 and became large-scale battles by 1961. Although in a better warfare position, the People's Army of Vietnam (North Vietnamese Army) and its allies in the South, Viet Cong, suffered increasing mortality because of malaria epidemics. In some battle fields military strengths were reduced to half of the original, and in severe cases 90% of the troops were disabled. Hồ Chí Minh, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (then North Vietnam), asked his compatriot Zhou Enlai, the Premier of the People's Republic of China, for medical help. By that time Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party of China, had just introduced Cultural Revolution (1966-1971) which had resulted in closing of universities and banishment of many scientists and intellectuals. Mao, however, took Hồ Chí Minh's plea seriously and approved a military project. On 23 May 1967 a mass gathering of about 600 scientists was convened that included military personnel, scientists of different trades, including traditional practitioners. The meeting was the beginning of the military-research programme, code-named Project 523, simply named after the date (23 May) it was launched.〔 The project was divided into two streams, one for developing synthetic compounds, and the other for investigating traditional Chinese medicine. It was classified a top secret state mission. The project itself saved many scientists from the atrocities of Cultural Revolution.〔
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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