Piperaquine: a resurgent antimalarial drug.

Abstract

Piperaquine is a bisquinoline antimalarial drug that was first synthesised in the 1960s, and used extensively in China and Indochina as prophylaxis and treatment during the next 20 years. A number of Chinese research groups documented that it was at least as effective as, and better tolerated than, chloroquine against falciparum and vivax malaria, but no pharmacokinetic characterisation was undertaken. With the development of piperaquine-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum and the emergence of the artemisinin derivatives, its use declined during the 1980s. However, during the next decade, piperaquine was rediscovered by Chinese scientists as one of a number of compounds suitable for c..