Hope in the Fight Against Malaria
July 20, 2011
Anna Wang
Malaria could be reduced to a minor concern—maybe even eliminated—in the next decade if funders are able to sustain or slightly increase the money they’ve offered in the previous two decades.
A new analysis from the nonprofit research group Policy Cures has found a four-fold increase in annual funding for malaria research and development in just 16 years—from $121 million in 1993 to $612 million in 2009.
That funding has generated the strongest pipeline of malaria control and prevention products in history—including 50 drugs and dozens of vaccine candidates in development. This has taken malaria from being one of the world’s most neglected and deadly diseases to one that is in the international spotlight and on the cusp of being contained. According to the World Health Organization, 11 African countries have achieved a 50-percent reduction in either confirmed malaria cases or malaria-related hospital admissions and deaths in recent years.
“Funders are now well on the way to achieving global malaria control, treatment and elimination goals and, with maintained commitment, should reap the rewards in the next five to six years,” according to Policy Cures’s report, Staying the Course? Malaria Research and Development in a Time of Economic Uncertainty. The report was commissioned by the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and the nonprofit PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, a Burness client.
Continuing this progress will require steadfast support, the report notes. Even a small decline in funding could jeopardize the pipeline or derail product development, potentially unraveling the real progress that has been made toward controlling a disease that claims the lives of roughly 780,000 people each year.
But the potential for success, says Awa Marie Coll-Seck, executive director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, is huge.
“In the coming years, the fruits of this unprecedented investment in malaria research and development could save hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives,” Coll-Seck said. “This robust product pipeline gives us hope that eradication of malaria is possible.”
