Clinton pilots subsidized malaria drugs in Africa

By Emmanuel Kwitema

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton launched a program on Sunday to make subsidized malaria drugs available in Tanzania in a test scheme that could serve as a blueprint for Africa as a whole.

The project will make life-saving ACT drugs available at 90 percent less than the current market price to a national drug wholesaler, which will then distribute them to rural shops.

Malaria, caused by a parasite carried by mosquitoes, kills up to 3 million people a year worldwide and makes 300 million seriously ill. Ninety percent of deaths are in Africa south of the Sahara, mostly among young children.

Many of those lives could be saved with modern artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) drugs, which are far more effective than older treatments such as chloroquine. But a price of up to $8 to $10 per treatment puts them out of reach for many people.

"Not one soul should die of malaria," Clinton told reporters at a town outside Dar es Salaam after touring three medical stores.

Although drugmakers including Novartis and Sanofi-Aventis SA have reduced the cost of ACT medicines to around $1 when they are used in the public sector, the majority of Africans buy their medicine privately.

In Tanzania, around half of patients with malaria seek treatment through private drug shops instead of public health facilities, and most are unable to afford ACTs. Instead, they usually buy older drugs that are 20 to 30 times cheaper but are often ineffective due to drug resistance.

The pilot program by the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative is designed to test the practicality of subsidizing ACT drugs as a way to increase their use, a foundation spokesman said. The program will be rolled out in two areas in central Tanzania and targets 450,000 people in a year.