Mr Yongyuth headed the team researching antimalarial pyrimidine derivatives and methods of making and using them.

"This discovery is very meaningful for people in developing areas of sub-Saharan Africa, where over two million people die from malaria each year," he said. "This method will help scientists develop more effective drugs against malaria."

Although the number of Thai people who die from Malaria is not high, almost 100% of the patients show a symptom of drug resistances, he said.

"That will be probably develop into a major public health problem in the near future because currently we have only two medicinal formulas to treat malaria," the minister said.

The NSTDA applied for a US patent for the method in 2003.

Mr Yongyuth has spent more than 25 years studying Malaria. His team found that drug-resistant malaria is a result of DNA mutation, which lowers the effectiveness of the enzyme DHFR (Dihydrofolate reductase) to combine with the molecules in the medicine attacking the disease.

He said his team found a way to synthesise chemical functioning to increase the enzyme's effectiveness.

The discovery also lead to development of new treatments for Malaria, he said.

Research teams would study three or four sub-types of anti-folate, which is a group of medicines that reduce a patient's resistance to malaria drugs.

"Hopefully, we can put it on the market in the next four or five years," he added.