Millions die because of high malaria drug prices

Millions die because of high malaria drug prices

A child sleeps in the room of children in government-run Institute Ifakara Health in Bagamoyo, Tanzania on October 31, 2009. Nearly one million people die of malaria each year because they can not afford the most effective treatment and often buy drugs instead of old age at which the malaria parasite has become resistant, the researchers said.

Photo by: Tony Karumba, AFP / Getty Images


Nearly one million people die of malaria each year because they can not afford the most effective treatment and often buy drugs instead of old age at which the malaria parasite has become resistant, researchers said on Monday .

combination therapy with artemisinin or ACT, drugs made by companies such as Novartis and Sanofi-Aventis can cost up to 65 times the daily minimum wage in some African countries, according to a study from 6 nations at high risk by Population Services International against malaria.

ACTs may cost up to $ 11 for patients to purchase OTC, while older drugs less effective medicines cost only $ 0.30 cents.

"With most people access to antimalarial drugs in the private sector, price is a very significant barrier," said Desmond Chavasse, director of the PSI.

"A full course of ACT treatment for adults can be up to 65 times the daily minimum wage. It is an overwhelming incentive (for patients) to make the wrong choice anti-malarial drugs."

Malaria is a potentially fatal disease transmitted by mosquito bites. Children account for about 90 percent of deaths in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia - the worst affected areas.

Chavasse was speaking to reporters in Nairobi, where he was at an international conference on malaria presented a study entitled ACTwatch - a research project by the ISP and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on malaria on the market drugs across 6 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Cambodia.

The study - designed to provide data to enable experts to judge a drug benefit under grant offered in 11 countries - has examined the availability, price and volume of 23,000 treatments against malaria from 20,000 points of sale .

In most countries, the incidents represent only 5 to 15 percent of total anti-malarial drugs on the market, it has found.

According to the ISP, the majority of malaria endemic countries have changed their treatment policies three years ago to promote the administration of ACT drugs with resistance to malaria drugs as monotherapy more widespread.

But Chavez said, despite this, the ACT may still be available as low as 20 percent in the health sector consultations.

malaria experts hope $ 225 million Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria grant scheme (AMFm) launched in April by the Global Fund against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria will be substantially reduced price of ACTs in countries poor.

The plan is available in Benin, Cambodia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Uganda, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Niger, to try to reduce the price of ACTs to about $ 0.20 to $ 0.50 cents.