Artemisinin began to displace chloroqine as the preferred drug for malaria treatment in the mid 2000s after the results were released from the controversial SEAQUAMAT (Southeast Asia Quinine Artesunate Malarial Trial) of June 2003 to May 2005. In the largest ever real-life trial for severe malaria , 2,000 participants in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Indonesia were split into two groups with half of them given quinine and half artemisinin. The study was stopped early because of the huge difference in morality between the two groups. Twenty-two percent of those in the quinine group died while 15 percent in artemisinin did. Arjen Dondorp of Mahidol University in Thailand, a leader of the study, told Reuters, “Artemisinin is better than quinine in all subgroups of patients with severe malaria. Artemisinin is the treatment of choice for severe malaria."