A company based in BASEL, Switzerland has reached a milestone by delivering one billion courses of antimalarial treatment – largely without profit – but the effort has been somewhat overshadowed by estimates that a child dies every two minutes from Malaria.
Novartis (www.Novartis.com) announced on Wednesday that it has delivered one billion courses of antimalarial treatment since 1999.
“This is a landmark moment in the fight against malaria. Over the last 20 years, Novartis has delivered one billion treatments in more than 70 countries,” said Dr. Lutz Hegemann, Group Head, Corporate Affairs and Global Health, Novartis.
“We could not have achieved this milestone without the support of our global partners and those we work with on the ground in endemic countries.”
Dr. Hegemann said children bear a significant burden of malaria disease and death.
“In 2010, a child died every 30 seconds from malaria and now it is estimated that a child dies every two minutes,” said Dr. Hegemann.
“Although this is a massive improvement, there is still a long way to go.”
Of the one billion treatments delivered, more than 430 million were the pediatric formulation launched in 2009, contributing to a significant reduction in malaria deaths in children:
More than 90% of this artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) was supplied without profit to malaria-endemic countries around the globe.
ACTs are the standard of care for the treatment of P. falciparum malaria, the most deadly form of the disease, responsible for over 99% of cases in Africa and half of cases in Asia [2].
Working with Chinese partners, Novartis launched the first fixed-dose ACT (artemether-lumefantrine) in 1999.
Since 2000, the WHO estimates that 1.5 billion malaria cases have been averted and 7.6 million lives saved.
In 2001, two years after the launch of its ACT, Novartis signed an agreement with the WHO, committing to make the antimalarial available without profit to the public sector of malaria-endemic countries.
Although the agreement expired in 2011, Novartis continues to provide treatments on the same terms as before.
