Money Markets
Drug subsidy boosts campaign against malaria
Children make up nearly 90 per cent of the nearly 900,000 people who die from malaria every year, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. Research efforts are yet to yield an effective counterweight to the tropical environment in which malaria thrives. Photo/ANTHONY KAMAU
Posted Monday, July 19 2010 at 00:00
Kenyans are set to benefit from a major deal that is likely to cut prices of malaria drugs by more than half, easing the pressure on family medical costs.
The initiative will see over the counter malaria drugs cost the same price as those provided in government hospitals in a move that will help strengthen the anti-malaria campaign.
The new deal signed in Kampala last week involves the Global Fund and six manufacturers of malaria drugs working in a public- private collaboration negotiated by the Clinton Health Access Initiative.
The new drugs, known as “artemisinin-based combination therapies” or ACTs, are about 10 – 40 times more expensive when sold over the counter than the old drugs which have lost their effectiveness because the malaria parasite has developed resistance to them.
As a result of the high cost, many still buy these cheaper, less effective drugs and currently, only one in every five patients treated for malaria has access to ACTs.
“These agreements bring us closer to the day when all who need malaria medicines will get them at affordable prices,” says Global Fund Executive Director Michel Kazatchkine
The six manufacturers that have signed Master Supply Agreements with the Global Fund are: Ajanta Pharma, Cipla, Guilin, Ipca, Novartis and Sanofi-aventis.
All six pharmaceutical firms meet the Global Fund’s quality criteria for supplying ACTs to first-line buyers.
Other manufacturers may participate in the initiative provided that they meet the quality criteria.
Prior practices
In a departure from prior practices, manufacturers will sell ACTs to first-line buyers from the private sector at the same reduced prices as they sell to those in the public sector.
Under the agreements, private importers will now pay up to 80 per cent less than they did in 2008-2009 for the artemisinin-based combination therapies – ACTs, bringing the factory gate prices down to the same level as public sector buyers.
Currently ACTs make up only 5 per cent of treatments provided through the private sector.
Orders of ACTs at these more affordable prices have already begun, said the Global Fund.
Kenya is within the malaria occurrence belt in Africa, a disease estimated to cause 20 per cent of deaths of children under five years, and thousands of adults every year, according to government statistics.
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