Rolling back malaria
In collaboration with international organizations, Novartis provides the anti-malarial medicine Coartem (artemether and lumefantrine) without profit for public-sector use in malaria-endemic developing countries.
Coartem is a state-of-the-art artemisinin-based combination treatment (ACT) for malaria. The medicine is well-tolerated and highly effective, providing cure rates of over 95% even in areas of multi-drug resistance.
To date, Novartis has provided 320 million treatments of Coartem to patients in more than 60 malaria-endemic countries, the vast majority in Africa, without profit.
“The Novartis Malaria Initiatives are a true global effort, bringing together the public and private sectors in a unique collaboration, working toward a common goal – to save lives. While Novartis remains committed to the Coartem program, we cannot do it alone. Our partnerships with like-minded organizations reinforce that together we can make a real and sustainable impact on patients in need,” says Dr. Daniel Vasella, Chairman, Novartis
To ensure a dependable supply and meet rising demand for Coartem, Novartis has invested heavily to expand production in China and the United States. Since the beginning of the program in 2001, production efficiency gains have enabled Novartis to halve the price per treatment, greatly increasing access to patients. At the same, production capacity was scaled up to 100 million treatments annually.
Focusing on children in Africa, the group most vulnerable to malaria, Novartis has developed Coartem Dispersible, a child-friendly formulation of Coartem, that dissolves easily in a small amount of water. With the same high cure rates as regular Coartem, cherry flavored Coartem Dispersible eases administration and helps ensure effective compliance.
Coartem Dispersible is the result of a public-private partnership between Novartis and Medicines for Malaria Venture, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to the development of affordable new antimalarials.
Visit the World Health Organization webite
Visit the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) website
Visit the Global Fund to Fight AIDS website