Acumen Fund investee Advanced Bio-Extracts Limited (ABE) is working hard to fight malaria by producing low-cost artemisinin in East Africa. Artemisinin is a key ingredient in the new malaria treatments (artemisinin-based combination therapies or ACTs) recommended by the World Health Organization to fight the increase in cases of drug-resistant malaria.
As this recent article in The New York Times explains, until recently, the high cost of ACTs significantly limited the drugs’ availability to the people most in need. The high cost was a result of many things, including limited availability of the raw material used to produce artemisinin. In the past few years, ABE has played a key role in scaling-up raw material production and pushing the cost of artemisinin down. Whereas ACTs used to be sold in Africa for $3 - $4 per adult treatment, they now cost approximately $1 per adult treatment.
In January 2007, ABE commissioned the first factory in Africa to produce artemisinin and has delivered enough artemisinin to treat 3 million cases of malaria in only two months. ABE expects to manufacture 50 million ACTs (malaria treatments) by the end of the year. In addition to supplying artemisinin to the leading producer of ACTs for the World Health Organization, ABE is affiliated with the pharmaceutical company that will manufacture ASAQ, the anti-malaria medicine mentioned in the NYT article. ABE is excited about the introduction of ASAQ and believes that the fewer pills required will significantly improve the effectiveness of the medication. Many people discontinue treatment mid-dosage with other ACTs because of the high number of pills required. It is exciting to support a company that is making such an enormous impact on the fight against malaria. Â
This is great news. Do you have any idea of how they are distributing the meds (i.e. through hospitals, pharmacists, community health care workers, etc.)?
I look forward to seeing the epidemiological data on malaria cases in the countries served by the ABE factories.
Reply to Cat LaineCat, thanks so much for your comment. Low-cost ACTs are distributed in Kenya through hospitals, pharmacists, community health care workers, and health clinics (including the CFW shops supported by Acumen Fund investee, Sustainable Healthcare Foundation (SHEF)). However, ABE is only focused on the production of ACTs and is not involved in the distribution of the medication. We hope that ABE’s work will ensure the quality of malaria medication and help drive monotherapies out of the market.
The ACTs are used to treat, rather than to prevent, cases of malaria. So, while we hope incidences of death due to malaria will decrease with increased use of ACTs, the number of cases of malaria will not be reduced because of the introduction of ASAQ.
Reply to Jocelyn WyattA major barrier was cost. At their cheapest, artemisinins cost at least 10 times as much as chloroquine. Cost was not the only factor, though. No global alarm had been sounded about the looming crisis because until the creation of the fledgling Roll Back Malaria Partnership at the end of the 1990s, the malaria-control community consisted of a cadre of scattered technical experts. Few heard the warnings of lone voices.
Reply to Double glazing