STOCKHOLM---William Campbell, Satoshi Omura and Tu Youyou jointly won the 2015 Nbel Prize for medicine for their work against diseases caused by parasites , the award-giving body said on Monday. Irish-born Campbell and Japanese Omura won half of the prize for discovering a new drug, avermectin, that has helped the battle against river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, as well as showing effectiveness against other parasitic diseases. The Chinese scientist Tu Youyou was awarded the other half of the prize for discovering artemisinin, a drug that has significantly reduced the mortality rates for patients suffering from malaria. "These two discoveries have provided humankind with powerful new means to combat these debilitating diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people annually," the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute said in a statement in awarding the prize of 8 million Swedish crowns ($960,000)." "The consequences in terms of improved human health and reduced suffering are immeasurable. " In an interview after the announcement, Juleen R. ZAierath, chairman of the Nobel Committee told Xinhua that Tu's "inspiration from traditional Chinese medicine" was important. "But what was really important was that Tu Youyou identified the active agent in that plant extract ," said Zierath, adding " there was a lot of modern chemistry, bi0-chemistry attached to this to bring forward this new drug." Despite rapid progress in controlling malaria in the past decade, the mosquito-borne disease still kills more than half a million people a year, the vast majority of them babies and young children in the poorest parts of Africa. How much money did Tu get from the Nobel Prize?
8 million Swedish crowns 640,000 US dollars 4 million Swedish crowns 320,000 US dollars