Clinton Foundation Strikes Deal For Anti-Malaria Drugs

Ensuring a steady supply of a crucial Malaria medicine at reasonable prices for the world's poor, the Clinton Foundation has roped in six pharmaceutical majors in China and India for a price-cutting deal on anti-malarial drugs by a whopping 30 per cent. Over 500 million people sickened by Malaria each year are likely to benefit from the deal.

Cutting prices all along the supply chain - raw material, processing and final formulation – the cheaper drugs will be made available to the 69 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, which together make up the Clinton HIVdefine/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) purchasing consortium.

As per the deal, the drug suppliers have also agreed to lower the price volatility of artemisinin - the key raw material for artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), by 70 per cent, the foundation revealed.

For decades, Chloroquine was considered the ideal treatment for malaria. However, over time the malaria parasite has developed a resistance to the drug rendering it ineffective.

Though the latest miracle malaria medicines - the Artemisinin-based combination therapies - can rapidly cut malaria, its exceedingly high prices fluctuating between $155 and $1,100 per kilogram in recent years has made it a priced property.

'This agreement will reduce the prices for ACT drugs by 30 per cent to just 48 cents per treatment. We are also reducing the volatility of Artemisinin by 70 per cent, making the drugs cheaper substantially and enabling governments to stretch their limited dollars to reach millions more patients every year,” said Bill Clinton, former President of the United States and the founder of the ‘Clinton Foundation’.

Under the deal, Mumbai-based pharmaceutical giants IPCA and Cipla will offer a co-blister formulation of artesunate + amodiaquine (AS + AQ) — among the most widely used ACTs — at or below an average ceiling price of 48 cents per treatment, a reduction of more than 30 per cent from current market rates.

Furthermore, artemether-lumafantrine will be made available at or below an average ceiling price of 91 cents.

While two Chinese drug manufacturers, Holleypharm and PIDI Standard, will supply the raw material, artemisinin, two other Mumbai-based firms, Calyx and Mangalam Drugs, will be active ingredient suppliers.

The Clinton Foundation:

The William J. Clinton Foundation was established by former President of the United States Bill Clinton.

Driven by the mission to ‘strengthen the capacity of people throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence,’ the foundation focuses on four critical areas: health security; economic empowerment; leadership development and citizen service; and racial, ethnic and religious reconciliation.

Earlier in 2002, the former president established an HIV/AIDS initiative that sought to negotiate lower prices for antiretroviral treatments.