Novartis announced today an immediate and significant reduction in the average price of its antimalarial medicine Coartem for the public market by more than one-third to an average US$1.00 per treatment in an effort to accelerate further access to this important malaria therapy in low-income regions, particularly Africa.
"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 Medecins Sans Frontieres can now become even more effective in rolling back malaria," Dr. Vasella said.
The average price per treatment is now US$1.00 compared to the prior level of US$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% 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.
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Insider's view: well done Dr Vasella!
A great start. Now, why not donate for free a few million doses, paid for out of profits?
1 comment:
Well done Doc. Vasella. An excellent PR move while your case against the poor of India and other parts is evolving in case of an expensive drug, Glivec. The malaria drug is paid by UN anyway and the few penies they save per dose is a very high price for your PR move.
We are not impressed.
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