Malaria is the most widely spread endemic tropical parasitic disease with the highest incidence and mortality rate. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that malaria is endemic in 107 countries, of which 45 African countries accounted for more than 90% of the total. In 2006, of the 3.3 billion people who are at risk, 350-500 million suffered from malaria and three million people died, with the majority being children under the age of five. In addition to being a considerable health risk, malaria creates a heavy economic burden for countries, which results in increasing the cycle of poverty and limiting economic development. Each year in Africa, it is estimated that the direct loss due to malaria is US$12 billion. Malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis are ranked by WHO as the three diseases it gives priority to fund for prevention and treatment.
The marketing of anti-malarial drugs has its own particularity when compared to other drugs. Anti-malarial drugs are primarily sold through public channels, including bulk purchases from international organizations, governments and charitable organizations. These public channels of distribution and sales account for 70 to 80% of the market share, while private channels account for the remaining 20%-30%. In recent years, the international community organizations have increased this funding to US$3 billion per year. The anti-malaria funds RBM (Roll Back Malaria Organization*) distributes have increased from US$250 million in 2004 to US$1.1 billion in 2008. According to the Global Fund’s forecast, funds to control global malaria will reach US$5.6 billion.
Although the international community invests US$ billions to support the eradication of malaria in Africa, the incidence of malaria remains high and is a serious problem to the endemic countries’ sanitation. It also impedes economic and social development. This is due to two factors: first, the global malaria control methods that RBM uses have had little effect; and second, the traditional anti-malarial drugs have also had little effect. In 2001, WHO identified artemisinin and artemisinin-based combination formulations invented by Chinese scientists as the first-line treatment of malaria.
In the 1980s, side-effects and serious drug resistance began to develop in traditional anti-malarial drug treatments. That was when ACT artemisinin-based drugs became the drug of choice for fighting malaria. The world’s 107 malaria-risk countries have all changed their anti-malaria policy, using ACT products as their primary choice of anti-malarial drug treatment. More than 60 countries have formally begun this policy implementation, resulting in a worldwide shortage of artemisinin-based products in recent years. According to SANOFI and NORVATIS forecasts, the market potential for ACT products in the next five to 10 years will be US$1.5 billion worldwide. The life cycle of these new ACT type anti-malarial drug products will be 20 to 30 years.
With WHO determining that artemisinin-based combinations are the first-line anti-malarial drugs, the entire public sector market share is now primarily controlled by Norvatis and SANOFI, with Novartis holding over 50% share of the market. In the global private artemisinin drug markets, Novartis, Sanofi and Dafra occupy the top three spots. At present, China’s market share of producing artemisinin-based anti-malarial drugs is less than 10%, with annual exports at US$60 million. India has a number of smaller companies, including Cipla, Ipca and Ajanta that produce artemisinin-based anti-malarial drugs, but their market share is limited.
In recent years, annihilating malaria has regained worldwide popularity because of the participation of Bill Gates and former US President Bill Clinton, and other philanthropic and public figures. Their enthusiasm has stimulated a renewed interest in global eradication and containment of malaria, however they continue to focus on old methods.
With the continued success of the eradication of source malaria in Cambodia and the Comoros of Africa, Artepharm Co. is hopeful that WHO will eventually adopt the new Artequick technology to use as its global strategy to fight malaria.