Drug company Novartis cuts price of malaria drug
Novartis has reduced the price of its malaria drug by a fifth
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Wednesday, 23, Apr 2008 09:04
Drug company Novartis has announced a 20 per cent average reduction in the price of its malaria drug Coartem to help access to treatment in the world's poorest regions.
Malaria is the biggest killer of children in Africa and affects 300 to 500 million people every year.
The reduced price of Coartem, which produces cure rates up to 95 per cent, will come into effect this Friday during World Malaria Day.
Novartis says the reduction will increase access to the drug for millions of malaria patients, especially children in low income regions of Africa.
"We are pleased that Novartis is able to significantly reduce the price of Coartem which will further improve access to Coartem for patients in developing countries, helping to save even more lives," said Novartis chairman Dr Daniel Vasella.
"To date our ability to reliably supply significant quantities of our medicines has helped us save approximately 450,000 lives."
Novartis provides Coartem to the public sector without profit.
Since 2001, the company has supplied more than 160 million treatments to malaria-endemic countries.