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Millennium Development Goals are to be achieved. Global effort over the coming years must include a clear focus on assuring widespread access to high-quality antimalarial medicines. To do this we need high-quality market data to enable us to measure the impact of donor investment.


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A key stumbling block is that we have little information about the size and structure of the antimalarials market, and how this may have changed since ACTs became widely available. There is little clarity on how many products are registered, how large the market share is for the most important classes of medicines versus older products that are no longer recommended, their relative price, and their availability; what funding is available, and where the main bottlenecks are to ensuring a regular flow of key medicines.


To help build a picture of malaria treatment supplies in Africa, MMV is working with a number of partners, including the Ministry of Health and Pharmaceuticals Regulatory Authority of Zambia, as well as IMS Health, the world’s largest pharmaceutical data management company. Together we have piloted a new methodology in Zambia.


The principle of the collaboration is simple: each party brings its area of expertise to the table to create a user-friendly system of data collection and interpretation suited to all partners. The system integrates and verifies data from paper and electronic- based records from different government departments, donor agencies and import records and translates them into standardized output. The output can then be analysed in an easy and systematic way.


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ver the last 10 years, a combination of new technologies for treatment and prevention, new funding and a greater


political commitment have made huge inroads in the fight against malaria. Since 2000, malaria mortality rates have been reduced by 25% worldwide and 33% in Africa. Yet a staggering 655,000 people continue to die year in, year out.1


In terms of access, the most notable progress has been made ine in relation to bed net coverage; access to high-quality artemis gn


combination behind.1 therapies (ACTs) still This must change, particularly if the


With rapid access to a simplified system of data analysis, Ministries of Health or Regulatory Agencies can quickly answer critical public health questions such as:


 Are sufficient quantities of medicines being imported or locally manufactured, relative to estimated need?


 How much of a given product was brought into the country and when?


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 How do the public, private and faith-based sectors compare in terms of volume of medicines imported?


 What is the availability of first-line treatment options compared to less efficacious or non-quality assured


medicines?


The system has also been used to strengthen national regulatory capacity, by improving the regulatory authority’s registration data, reviewing transaction times for import authorisations, and improving the effective allocation of national drug inspectors.


This is the first time Zambia has been able to fully measure the impact of changes to pharmaceutical policies in terms of the availability of medicines imported into the country.


The data collected are critical to national planning and policy formulation. They will also provide much-needed answers regarding the impact of different initiatives


taken by governments and external parties on access to essential medicines.


But this is just the beginning…


MMV and IMS Health look forward to continuing this work in collaboration with a growing number of partners, including ministries of health, donors, research institutes and implementing agencies, with the objective of bridging the malaria market information gap across Africa.


For more information on our work see: www.mmv.org/access-delivery


1 World Health Organization World Malaria Report 2011: www.who.int/malaria/world_malaria_report_2011/9789241564403_eng.pdf


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