Artemether was more promising for clinical drug than its parent molecule artemisinin. In 1981, the National Steering Committee for Development of Qinghaosu (artemisinin) and its Derivatives authorised Zhou Yiqing, who was working at the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology of the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences, to work on artemether. Zhou showed that artemether combined with another antimalarial lumefantrine was the most potent of all antimalarial drugs. He worked alone for four years, and Ning Dianxi and his team joined Zhou in 1985. They found that in clinical trials the combined tablet had cure rate of severe malaria of more than 95%, including in areas where multi-drug resistance is experienced. They applied for patent in 1991 but received it only in 2002. In 1992, they registered it as a new drug in China. Noticing this, Novartis signed a pact for mass production. In 1999, Novartis obtained the international licensing rights and gave the brand name Coartem. The US Food and Drug Administration approved the drug in 2009.