Novartis has announced an immediate and significant reduction in the average price of its anti-malarial medicine Coartem for the public market by more than one-third to an average USD 1.00 per treatment in an effort to accelerate further access to this important malaria therapy in low-income regions, particularly Africa.
This devastating disease continues to be responsible for approximately one million deaths each year. Malaria disproportionately affects young children and adolescents in Africa, where a child is estimated to die of malaria every 30 seconds.
"The dramatic increase achieved in our production capacity, thanks to an improved supply situation for the natural ingredient artemisinin, provides us with an opportunity to further accelerate access to Coartem in combination with a price decrease," said Dr Daniel Vasella, chairman and CEO of Novartis.
"The compelling need for an inexpensive and highly effective malaria treatment, especially in low-income countries, prompted our decision to provide Coartem below our costs. I am very pleased that the WHO and other organizations such as UNICEF and Médecins Sans Frontières can now become even more effective in rolling back malaria," Dr Vasella said.
The average price per treatment is now USD 1.00 compared to the prior level of USD 1.57. Novartis has been providing Coartem at no profit since 2001 in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO).
This price reduction is expected to have the greatest impact on children who are suffering disproportionately from malaria since they make up the majority of malaria patients. About 75 per cent of all malaria patients taking Coartem are children and adolescents. Countries will now be able to treat twice the number of children under age five with the same amount of funds.
Novartis has undertaken the pharmaceutical industry's most aggressive manufacturing scale-up of its kind to ensure that supplies of Coartem meet demand. Novartis has invested heavily in expanding production capacity at state-of-the-art sites in Suffern, New York, and China.
Commitments have also been made to stimulate and develop a diversified supply base for raw materials and active ingredients from Africa and China. A significant technology transfer from Novartis to its Chinese partners helped enable development and production of Coartem in line with good manufacturing practices.
Deliveries for Coartem have steadily climbed over the last two years from four million treatments in 2004 to well over 40 million treatments to date in 2006. Based on orders at hand, deliveries are expected to reach a milestone of 50 million treatments by the end of October 2006.
Coartem is the only pre-qualified, fixed-dose ACT combining artemether, an artemisinin derivative, and lumefantrine. It is a highly effective and well-tolerated antimalarial that achieves cure rates of up to 95 per cent, even in areas of multi-drug resistance. It is indicated for the treatment of acute uncomplicated falciparum malaria, the most dangerous form of malaria.