Nick White, 1951-2026

In 1979, research published in the Chinese Medical Journal described how a drug derived from a traditional herbal medicine was curing malaria with no side-effects. Many scientists outside China were sceptical but when Nick read the research, he went to meet the researchers and brought a vial of the drug back to his lab in Thailand.

Called Qinghaosu by the Chinese researchers (including Tu Youyou who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize for its discovery), the drug was known in English as artemisinin. While Nick’s research interests were broad, artemisinin was a focus throughout his career. He helped find the most effective combinations, prove their effectiveness through international clinical trials, and chart the rise of resistance to the drug in malaria parasites.

Nick believed in supporting talented researchers to follow their curiosity, trusting that this freedom would lead to life-changing ideas. “A lot of medical research doesn’t, a lot of it fails, and that's reasonable; not everything works,” he said in a 2024 interview. “But I think we, particularly in our area of research, have to have a reasonable prospect that the work will translate into human benefit.”

Nick studied pharmacology then medicine in London, before working in hospitals in London and Oxford. While in Oxford, he heard about a major partnership being set up between Mahidol University in Bangkok, the University of Oxford in the UK, and Wellcome. In 1980 he relocated to Thailand to join the new Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), serving as its director from 1986 to 2001. He taught and led research in Bangkok and Oxford, and was a Wellcome Principal Research Fellow from 1991 onwards.

Nick led with generosity and good humour, but also determination. He refused to accept preventable deaths as inevitable, and never hesitated to challenge anyone – including his funders – if he thought more health impact could be gained a different way.

In their early studies of artemisinin, Nick and his colleague François Nosten realised the drug’s only shortcoming was how quickly it was metabolised in the body. People needed seven doses a day. Nick had the idea to pair it with another drug that was slower-acting but longer-lasting. This became the model for a number of artemisinin combination therapies. They were safer and easier to use than quinine, which had been the treatment of choice for malaria since the 19th century.

Clinical trials were led by Nick, François, and Arjen Dondorp in Thailand, and in Vietnam by Tran Tinh Hien and Jeremy Farrar. Much larger, multi-country trials followed in Asia and Africa until artemisinin combination therapy was recommended by the World Health Organization as the first-line treatment against malaria in 2006.

It complemented the effectiveness of insecticide-treated bednets to reduce transmission at a time when vaccines against malaria did not exist. “We were winning between 2000 and 2015,” Nick said. “Numbers were coming down across the world.”

But already there were signs that the parasites that cause malaria were developing resistance to artemisinin. A few years later the numbers of malaria cases and deaths began to creep up again. In response, Nick started developing and testing treatments combining three drugs.

Alongside malaria, Nick’s research addressed many other infectious diseases, including tetanus, dengue and tuberculosis. And when the Covid-19 pandemic began, he was among the thousands of researchers worldwide who turned their expertise to the new challenge. MORU ran the world’s largest trial of potential preventive drugs. It also led trials in Asia and South America to test Covid-19 treatments, giving policy makers clear evidence about which drugs to use, when and how.

MORU expanded geographically and scientifically under Nick’s leadership. Today, it is one of Wellcome’s longest-standing international partnerships, a world-leader in patient-centred clinical and public health research, and trains new generations of researchers. Its success led to a similar partnership in Vietnam in 1991 (Oxford University Clinical Research Unit - OUCRU), with Nick later taking the role of chair across both programmes.

John-Arne Røttingen, Wellcome’s chief executive, says: “Nick White’s leadership, insight and humanity helped shape one of the most significant public health successes of the past 50 years. While he would be the first to credit others in the fight against malaria, his impact on global health – and on millions of people’s lives – is profound.

“He also helped Wellcome forge strong links with health research in South-East Asia – links that continue to grow today. We are deeply grateful for the years we worked with Nick. He will be missed by his family, friends, colleagues and collaborators around the world.”