Recent advances in pharmaceutical manufacturing technologies are showing the promise of continuous production: pharmaceutical firms currently rely on mature batch technology but increasingly evaluate the potential of Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (CPM). Continuous production methods have efficiency, cost, reliability and quality advantages: in this paper we evaluate and quantify these for the case of CPM of artemisinin, a key antimalarial Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API). Published reaction and unit operation data are analysed, static models are developed, and continuous plug flow reactors are designed for a reference case producing 100 kg of API per year. The small reactor volumes computed (19.72 mL and 78.72 mL) illustrate the capital expenditure and small footprint benefits of continuous manufacturing. Alternative CPM cases are also developed, whereby different continuous API recovery operations are evaluated in comparison to the base case; the latter employs a reported batch product recovery. Employing published solubility data as well as data estimated using the UNIFAC method, our systematic evaluation identifies ethanol (EtOH) and ethyl acetate (EtOAc) as promising candidate antisolvents for continuous crystallisation. For the same 100 kg per year production level of API, designs using continuous separation techniques can achieve significantly improved E-factor values (22.52 average) compared to the batch process (65.28), implying enhanced sustainability through reduced waste generation. This API of critical societal importance is a very promising candidate for CPM, with the future benefits of performing full analysis and technoeconomic optimisation evident. (C) 2016 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.