"One in three" malaria drugs in Africa fail

As many as 35% of antimalarial drugs sold in six major African cities failed basic quality tests, according to a study published in PLoS ONE, a peer-reviewed open-access journal. The study found that artemisinin monotherapies, which the World Health Organization rejects as substandard, remain common in Africa.

According to the International Policy Network, a free-market-oriented think-tank, substandard antimalarial drugs cause an estimated 200,000 avoidable deaths per year. Roger Bate, the report's lead author, said: "our study shows that efforts to increase access to quality antimalarial drugs in Africa are increasingly important. Substandard drugs not only endanger lives today, but also jeopardize future malaria treatment strategies by accelerating parasite resistance."

The WHO recommends the use of artemisinin combination therapies to lower the possibility of parasite resistance. However, a third of the antimalarials examined in the PLoS study were artemisinin monotherapies: 42% of them were ineffective and 78% were manufactured after the WHO proscribed them in January 2006 (Marketletters passim).