The World Health Organisation has prequalified Coartem® 80/480mg as the first and only high strength malaria treatment available for donor-funded public sector procurement.
The Prequalification also establishes Coartem® 80/480mg as the only high strength (80/480mg) Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) antimalarial treatment available for public sector procurement.
This new dosage strength has the potential to improve malaria management. It allows for broad-scale public sector procurement, possibly providing access to the treatment to as many as 25 million malaria sufferers across Africa.
Joseph Jimenez, CEO of Novartis said “Over the last ten years, Novartis has worked with partners to make Coartem® treatments available to patients in the public sector and through donor-funded private sector programs, WHO prequalification of Coartem® 80/480mg aligns with the longstanding work of the Novartis Malaria Initiative and confirms the company’s status as a leading innovator in malaria treatment.”
Dr Nafo Traoré, Executive Director of Roll Back Malaria Partnership added that “By reducing the number of pills that adults have to take, we hope to see better adherence to treatment regimens, helping us to combat this preventable and treatable disease which still kills hundreds of thousands of people.”
According to WHO, although preventable and treatable, malaria was responsible for approximately 584,000 deaths in 2013.