An evaluation of a controversial initiative to broaden access to malaria medicines has found that in pilot studies it rapidly increased the availability and lowered the price of the drugs.1

A paper in the Lancet looks at the Affordable Medicines Facility malaria (AMFm), an initiative launched by the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2010 to increase uptake of quality assured artemisinin based combination therapies (QAACTs). The facility was introduced because of concerns that uptake of these treatments, the most effective way to treat malaria, was too low because of their high cost and poor availability. There was also concern about the emergence of artemisinin resistance, exacerbated by use of monotherapies.

The fund negotiated a …