Global Subsidy for Antimalarial Drugs Defining Architecture and management and Building a Coalition

Term: -31/09/2007

Project Description

Artemisinin-combination therapies (ACTs) substantially delay the emergence and spread of artemisinin-resistant strains of falciparum malaria and they should be made available at affordable prices. In 2004, the Institute of Medicine concluded that a global high-level subsidy was the best way to make effective antimalarial drugs such as ACT widely available. Manufacturers of all ACTs meeting the pre-specified efficacy, safety, and quality criteria would be entitled to the subsidy. It is the hope that a similar price to chloroquine treatments today can be achieved (the most frequently used malaria drug, however it is no longer effective in many areas), hence making buyers paying very low prices out-of-pocket and allowing drugs to flow through existing channels. Through market forces we would expect an elimination of usage of the more expensive unsubsidized artemisinin monotherapies and a transfer to the subsidized ACTs (co-formulations). This study focuses on the economic implications and logistics that the different subsidy formulas may have on the ACT supply chains.

The objectives of this project are:

• To develop an adequate architecture and an operational plan to develop a general high level subsidy for effective antimalarial drugs.
• To build a coalition with the necessary critical mass to generate funding and political support so that the subsidies become a reality.
• To generate questions regarding the external effects of the subsidy or the external factors that may put the initiative at risk.

Participating Organizations

Press and Media Mentions

• The Economist, Nov.1 2007
• MIT Supply Chain Strategy April 2008
• MIT-CTL Supply Chain Frontiers March 2008

Publications, invited talks and conferences

• “Supply Chain Analysis of a Global Subsidy for Anti Malarials”. Technical Report 2007. and May Ongola.
• “Supply Chain Interventions to Improve Access to Malaria Medicines”. Harvard Medical School, Department of Ambulatory Care, Feb 2008.
• “Supply Chain Interventions to Improve Access to Malaria Medicines”. INSEAD Social Innovation Forum, Fontainebleau, Feb 2008.
• “Supply Chain Interventions to Improve Access to Malaria Medicines”. MIT-ESD faculty Seminar, April 2008.
• “Supply Chain Interventions to Improve Access to Malaria Medicines”. Tsukuba University Research Seminar, Japan, Jan 2008.
• “Health Care Supply Chains in Developing Countries: the case of malaria”. Indian Institute of Management, Ahemadabad, India, April 2007.