Fighting malaria is part of the United Nations’ sixth millennium development goal, yet a new generation of frontline drugs remains out of reach of most patients, so a new £150m (€170m; $220m) scheme has been developed to subsidise their cost.

Launched last week in Oslo, the Affordable Medicines Facility for Malaria is an innovative financing mechanism designed to expand access to artemisinin based combination drugs, the most effective treatment.

In 2006 about 250 million people developed malaria, of whom nearly a million died. Malaria parasites are becoming increasingly resistant to older drugs, such as chloroquine and pyrimethamine with sulfadoxine, which are still often used because they are relatively cheap.

“The age when the …