9/11

The Malaria epidemic is like

loading up seven Boeing 747
airplanes each day then
deliberately crashing them
into Mt Kilamanjaro
Chairman
Malaria Foundation International

Please dont forget

An African dies every 30 seconds from
malaria.
That means that by the end of this
conference about 9000 people will
have died from this disease.

By the end of the year just under 1

million will have died.

% of deaths under 5 caused

by malaria
Zambia
Malawi
Senegal
Mozambique
Uganda
Kenya
Ghana

50%
48%
42%
37%
34%
27%
22%

Counting the cost

Poor families spend 25% of their annual
income on malaria prevention and
treatment
In Malawi Malaria accounts for 40% of
the total public health spending
Malaria costs Africa $12 billion per year
Roll Back Malaria Program report

Where are the products?

We have a ridiculous situation in that
governments together with individuals
like Bill Gates and George Soros are
providing funds to treat malaria and
people are still dying every day from
malaria when a treatment approved by
WHO exists but is not available to
them
CEO
Essential Nutrition
August 2005

Access
the weapons to fight malaria exist:
medications, insecticide treatments,
spray equipment, tests to diagnose the
disease. But these weapons are
useless if they do not reach those who
need them.
RBM report 2004

Fond hopes
The Roll Back Malaria (RBM) programme launched in 1998 by WHO,
UNICEF , UNDP and World Bank has as its stated goal to halve Malaria
by 2010

By the end of 2005 in Africa at least 60% of

those suffering malaria should be able to
access and use correct,affordable and
appropriate Treatment within 24 hours of the
onset of treatment

Abuja Declaration 2003

Malaria and Malnutrition

The major cause of malnutition in Africa
is not lack of food but malaria and war
CILSS-IAI report 1982

Cost
Of the currently available antimalarials
only three cost < $1 per treatment
which is the threshold set by WHO for
affordable treatment. These include
chloroquine, sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine
and amodiaqunene all of which are fast
becoming useless. ACTs are expected to
cost circa $3 per treatment.
White 2003

Some Key Issues 1

Elite planting material, does it exist?
Is growing artemisia profitable?
High tech cultivation or smallholder
crop?
Artemisinin yields per hectare?
Shortage or surplus who knows?
Where should we grow? Asia, Africa,
both?

Some Key Issues 2

Why focus just on Artemisia?
What alternative herbal antimalarials
exist?
Is sufficient funds going into this?
What about their safety and efficacy?
Can they be sustainably sourced?
Can they be used in combination?
If so with what else?

Some Key Issues 3

Combination therapy dogma or must?

What combinations are possible?
Who makes the rules?
When is monotherapy appropriate?
What is the risk reward ratio?

Some Key Issues 4

Finding cost effective products?

ACTs are too expensive for Africa?
Village Artemisia teas are dangerous?
Novel extraction methods Co2, CFT
Suppositories, sub lingual sprays

Some Key Issues 5

Drug approvals why so few?
Who gets fast tracked and why?
Detailed international & national
registration guidelines dont exist
Is safety testing used as a barrier to
entry?

Some Key Issues 6

MARKETING
Antimalarials are not a profitable
business in the first place compare
anticancer drugs
The suffers cannot afford to pay
It is the travellers market that makes
the money for malaria drug producers
But artemisia is NOT recommended for
prophylaxis
So who will buy the ACTs, Bill Gates?

Objectives

Sharing information between

research, development, healer,
policy and regulatory organizations
involved in malaria treatment and
control,

Objectives
Identifying issues affecting the
conservation, cultivation and
production of potent medicinal
plant species relevant to malaria
treatment,

Objectives
Encouraging new products and
novel delivery systems that offer
cost effective and safe remedies for
malaria sufferers, and identifying
investors and entrepreneurs will to
develop such products,

Objectives
Encouraging appropriate
investment in the growing,
processing and distribution of
herbal antimalarials,

Objectives
Forwarding to government and
international agencies clear
recommendations concerning
rationalization and streamlining of
safe manufacturing practices and
marketing regulations for
antimalarials,

Objectives
Developing appropriate Africa-wide
quality control and quality
assurance standards for cultivation,
production and distribution of
herbal antimalarials and methods
to implement and police such
standards.