Commentary
The affordable medicines facility-malaria—A success in peril
1 World Wide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN), Malaria Public Health Department, University of Oxford/KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Programme, PO Box 43640, 00100, Nairobi, Kenya
2 Uganda Malaria Research Centre (UMRC), China Uganda Friendship Hospital, Kampala, Uganda
3 National Malaria Control Programme, Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, Nigeria
4 School of Public Health, Ghana Health Services, Ministry of Health, Accra, Ghana
5 National Malaria Control Programme, Accra, Ghana
6 Centre for Tropical Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, University of Ghana Medical School, Accra, Ghana
7 Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Nairobi, Kenya
8 Programme National de Lutte contre le Paludisme (PNLP - Niger), Niamey, Niger
9 National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), Dar es salaam, Tanzania
10 National Malaria Control Programme, Ministry of Health, Kampala, Uganda
11 Programme National de Lutte contre le Paludisme (PNLP-Madagascar), Antananarivo, 101, Madagascar
12 Zanzibar Malaria Control Programme, Ministry of Health-Zanzibar, Zanzibar, Tanzania
Malaria Journal 2012, 11:370 doi:10.1186/1475-2875-11-370
Published: 8 November 2012Abstract
The Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria (AMFm) has put into place a bold financing plan for artemisinin-combination therapy in a pilot phase in seven countries covering half the population at risk of malaria in Africa. A report of the AMFm independent evaluation, conducted by ICF International and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, describes the success of the programme in the pilot sites: Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania (mainland and Zanzibar) and Uganda, comparing availability and affordability of high-quality artemisinin-combination therapies before and after AMFm launched. Proof of concept was achieved: AMFm increased availability and kept prices low, meeting its initial, ambitious benchmarks in most settings. Despite this overwhelming success, opposition to the programme and dwindling resources for malaria control conspire to cripple or kill AMFm.
