Prognosis
Trump’s Malaria Drug Push Boon for 160-Year-Old Plantation
- India’s Directorate of Cinchona predicts more demand this year
- It’s natural source of quinine vs synthetic hydroxychloroquine
This article is for subscribers only.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s backing for a malaria drug to treat Covid-19 has boosted the prospects of an obscure plantation in the mountains of eastern India.
About 6,900 acres (28 kilometers) of the lower Himalayas are under Cinchona cultivation, a tree whose bark is a natural source of quinine -- of which hydroxychloroquine, the drug Trump has touted as a “gamechanger” in treating the coronavirus, is a synthetic derivative.