PRESS

Malaria Consortium Calls Roll Back Malaria Board Members to Endorse the Creation of An Affordable Medicines Facility for Malaria  Addis Ababa, Tuesday 27th November 2007. Following the launch of the All Party Parliamentary Malaria Group’s new report on case for a new facility mechanism for affordable malaria treatment in London last week, Malaria Consortium calls for the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Board members to endorse the launch of this new mechanism which aims to increase access to life saving artemisinin-based combination therapies by reducing the cost of the drugs to patients who need them.

The RBM Board meeting will take place in Addis Ababa on the 28th and 29th of November and will include discussions on the next steps towards the creation of an AMFm which has the potential to make effective but expensive anti-malarial drugs cheaper for patients.

The UK parliamentary group’s report, "The Right Drug at the Right Time - The Power of the Affordable Medicines Facility - malaria (AMFm) to Save Lives”, makes a strong case for the immediate development and utilisation of the Facility. The report, which was written by Malaria Consortium and London School of Tropical Medicine, considers the AMFm as a strong new tool for malaria control. The authors also acknowledge that this new Facility and other existing financing mechanisms are not sufficient to ensure availability and use of effective antimalarials. Greater access to life saving antimalarials cannot be achieved without health systems strengthening and assurance of drug quality in the private sector. Yet, it is a sound concept that should be

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Minister for Health for Ethiopia said: “As a Minister of Health for my country and as the Chair of the RBM Board I welcome this report which provides a comprehensive case for an AMFm as a new tool for increased access to antimalarials and which could save up to 300,000 lives per year. The AMFm alone is not the solution to all drug access problems but it is an option which cannot be ignored. We call all RBM board members to seriously consider this new mechanism and all funders to pledge their support.”

For any media enquiries, please contact:

Ethiopia: Agonafer TekalegneCountry Coordinator of Malaria Consortium and Coordinator of the Coalition Against Malaria EthiopiaTel: 251-11-4-165336        251-11-4-672181 Mobile: 251-911-216102 a.tekalegne@malariaconsortium.org  

UK: Monica EvansMC Communications OfficerTel: +44 20 7549 0219Tel: + 44 7949 515 306m.evans@malariaconsortium.org