COUNTRIES affected by malaria outbreaks can access anti-malarial drugs free of cost through a partnership between the World Health Organisaton (WHO) and Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis.

Silvio Gabriel, executive vice-president of a malaria initiative at Novartis said last year more than 62 million treatments of the drug called Coartem were delivered to more than 30 countries across Africa, helping to save an estimated 200,000 lives.

The partnership began in 2001 and will expire in 2011.

The drug is offered through the WHO, with grants provided by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to public sector agencies. The Global Fund has committed US$30 million for approved proposals over five years.

Countries can obtain the drugs by submitting proposals to the WHO. This process can take up to 18 months.

“When Coartem was created in 2001 nobody wanted the product, so we decided to make an agreement with WHO,” Gabriel told journalists at a three-day press conference at the company’s headquarters in Basle, Switzerland.

Novartis charged only $1.00 per treatment, without profit for distribution to public sector agencies and malaria endemic developing countries. Initially, the company charged US$1.57 per treatment.

At the same, Gabriel said there is evidence that the drug has helped to reduce the incidence of malaria in countries where it has been introduced. He said in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa the introduction of Coartem in that province has seen an overall reduction is cases by 78 per cent in 2001 and 86 per cent in 2002, while hospital admonitions were reduced by 82 per cent.