Beating parasites wins three scientists Nobel prize for medicine

Pharmacologist Tu Youyou attends a award ceremony in Beijing, November 15, 2011. William Campbell, Satoshi Omura and Tu jointly won the 2015 Nobel prize for medicine or physiology for their work against parasitic diseases, the award-giving body said on October 5, 2015. Picture taken November 15, 2011. REUTERS/Stringer

STOCKHOLM/LONDON (Reuters) - Three scientists from Japan, China and Ireland whose discoveries led to the development of potent new drugs against parasitic diseases including malaria and elephantiasis won the Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday.

Irish-born William Campbell and Japan's Satoshi Omura won half of the prize for discovering avermectin, a derivative of which has been used to treat hundreds of millions of people with river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis.