Malaria community partners recognize malaria innovations and urge WHO member states to scale up investments

The following statement was submitted by MMV and PATH and is supported by the Global Health Technology Coalition (GHTC), the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC):

Our organizations, bringing together academia, industry and access partners, are devoted to developing and facilitating access to life-saving malaria prevention tools, diagnostics and medicines. Since the launch of the WHO Strategy, several innovations have helped transform the prevention and treatment of malaria, and saved millions of lives. These innovations include:

• the massive adoption of seasonal malaria chemoprevention,
• improved tools for managing the continuum of care for severe malaria in children in rural settings,
• the first single-dose treatment and molecular diagnostic test for relapsing malaria, and a test to detect genetic anomalies limiting treatment options, and
• the first wave of second-generation bednets with new insecticide combinations.

We concur with WHO that we need to address the fragility of health systems, which leads to stalled progress. Malaria is a disease which is preventable and treatable, with strong primary health care and referral services and with capacity for supply and stockpiling of commodities in rural communities.

We also endorse WHO’s statement that the need for investment in better tools is greater than ever. Scaled up investment in innovation also requires efficient processes for prequalification of products and revision of guidelines, along with technical support for early adoption of these new technologies in countries.

We have today a robust portfolio of malaria tools in development, including potential vaccines. With sustained support for research and broad roll out of existing innovations in countries, the world will be soon much better equipped to move forward on the path to global malaria elimination.