PND (11/16/99) -- Public-Private Partnership Aims to Provide Affordable Drugs for Malaria

The World Health Organization, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations have joined with other public and private partners to inaugurate Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), an initiative dedicated to discovering, developing, and commercializing anti-malarial drugs at prices that are affordable to low-income populations most affected by the disease.

Over 300 million new cases of clinical malaria are reported and more than 1 million people die from the disease every year. Affordable new drugs need to be distributed to communities in which the rate of transmission is high if the disease, which is beginning to show resistance to existing medications, is to be contained. The enormous cost of bringing new drugs to market, however, makes medications aimed at poor populations unattractive to most for-profit pharmaceutical companies.

Designed as an entrepreneurial venture, the nonprofit MMV will negotiate licensing agreements with its partners that make possible the commercialization of products for low-income populations at affordable prices. If royalty income accrues to MMV on products that earn significant returns for its partners, the resulting income will be set aside to help offset the need for future donations.

"We cannot face a mother whose child has just died of malaria and tell her: 'I am sorry; your child has died as a result of market failure' or, 'your child has died because the public sector is not able to take action.' We must do better than that," said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of the World Health Organization.

For more information on WHO's public-private ventures aimed at eradicating infectious disease, see WHO Fact Sheet 235. To read the "WHO Report on Infectious Diseases," visit: http://www.who.org/infectious-disease-report/.

FCnote: The Rockefeller Foundation (NY) had assets of $3,094,733,452 and made grants totaling $99,262,759 in the year ending 12/31/97.

"Rockefeller Foundation, WHO, others establish Medicines for Malaria; Venture a Public-Private Partnership to Develop New Anti-Malaria Drugs Affordable to Countries Worst Hit by the Disease." Rockefeller Foundation Press Release 11/3/99.

"Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General World Health Organization, Statement at MVV Launch." WHO News Release 11/3/99.

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