Published 20 July 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2908
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b2908

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Subsidise artemisinin for malaria to delay resistance, say analysts

Bob Roehr

1 Washington, DC

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A mixture of subsidy and market forces is being touted as a way to promote the use of combination therapy for treating malaria, which the World Health Organization has recommended since 2001. The long term goal is to reduce and delay the emergence of resistance to the artemisinin family of compounds and extend their lives as effective drugs.

"If we used artemisins in the same way we used chloroquines, which was as a monotherapy, the chance that we would lose it within about 10 years is extremely high," said Ramanan Laxminarayan, a policy analyst with the charity Resources for the Future. He was speaking at a forum in Washington, DC, on 14 July, where a paper he coauthored in Health Affairs was released (2009;28:949-61, doi:10.1377/hlthaff.28.4.949).

The challenge is to get patients to take artemisinin drugs, which are more expensive than chloroquines, when they would not benefit directly. The . . . [Full text of this article]


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