E-DRUG: Cure For Malaria Hung Up In Bureaucracy
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[copied from INDICES with thanks; WB]
Source: http://www.unfoundation.org/unwire/unwire.cfm#3
Each day in Kenya, 72 children below the age of 5 die of malaria --
one every 20 minutes. The disease kills some 1 million Africans each
year and destroys the livelihoods of millions more. And the situation
is getting worse, reports the Financial Times. In much of East Af-
rica, chloroquine, a "cheap and widely available drug that has kept
malaria at bay for decades," has become almost useless as disease-
bearing parasites become resistant to the medication.
In 1996, London-based pharmaceutical giant Glaxo realized its anti-
malarial Malarone is 98% effective against even the most resistant
strains of the parasite. Glaxo had inherited the drug when it took
over Wellcome, a British company with a "distinguished tradition of
research into tropical diseases."
Glaxo Wellcome pledged to donate 1 million Malarone treatments
each year, indefinitely. Starting with a pilot project in Kenya, "Malarone
would fan out across East Africa." But "things have not worked out like
that." Instead of the 3 million doses Glaxo Wellcome could have distributed,
it has only given about 100. Most of them have been dispensed at Siaya, a
malaria-ridden district of Kenya where, "after years of arguing," a pilot
project got under way in April.
One of the main obstacles has been a suspicion of Glaxo Wellcome's
motives, according to the Financial Times. The suspicion in Kenya was that
Glaxo was mounting a marketing ploy to wean the country off
cheaper drugs for the significantly more expensive Malarone. After
the country was hooked, it was believed, the company would discon-
tinue free donations.
"I had never heard the word 'donation' before," said John Ouma, head
of the department of Vector Borne Diseases in Kenya's Ministry of
Health. "You had to wonder what ... they were talking about."
After Glaxo overcame suspicion, arguments started about whether 1
million doses would be sufficient. Bob Snow, a malaria epidemiologist and
adviser to Kenya's Health Ministry, said these concerns were legitimate. New
drugs, however effective, cannot be given out like sweets, he said. They
must be woven into the fabric of the country's existing drugs policy.
At a meeting last month in London, it was decided to press ahead with other
pilot projects in the area and extend the use of Malarone to
children and pregnant mothers. But Malarone remains shelved, despite Glaxo
Wellcome's "absolute determination to make it work." Yet "for some of the
most vulnerable children, ... the wonderdrug will come too late" (David
Pilling, Financial Times, 14 Nov., 1999).
Mr Gustav Malangu
Box 10205 Amajuba Newcastle 2940, South Africa
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