Sanofi confirms commitment to tackling malaria
Organises 10th Pan-African Conference against Malaria
French drugmaker Sanofi has reiterated its decades-long commitment to tackling malaria, with ceo Christopher Viehbacher stating that the elimination of the disease is now an achievable goal.
Sanofi is organising the 10th Pan-African Conference against Malaria, which gathers together the directors of 34 African National Malaria Control Programmes (NMCPs), representatives of the Global Fund To Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Health Organisation, the Roll Back Malaria partnership, and scientific experts.
Speaking at the opening of the Conference, Viehbacher said the aim of the partnership with the NMCPs is to ‘propose solutions beyond existing treatments including prevention and diagnosis to meet the challenges of the emergence of treatment-resistance strains’.
In spite of existing treatments, malaria caused 800,000 deaths worldwide in 2009, of which more than 90% were in Africa. Malaria is the third leading cause of mortality in African children, and is endemic in the Sub-Saharan region.
Sanofi has been producing medicines such as Quinimax, chloroquine (Nivaquine), and amodiaquine (Flavoquine), as part of its effort to eradicate the disease. The company has also been committed to a partnership strategy for the last 10 years to combat malaria and to contribute to attaining several of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.
In 2001, Sanofi launched the Impact Malaria programme to supply medicines at affordable prices and has also supported educational and information initiatives to create awareness about prevention, diagnosis and treatment of malaria.
Under the programme Sanofi has developed the medicine ASAQ Winthrop/Coarsucam (a fixed-dose combination of artesunate and amodiaquine) developed in partnership with DNDi (Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative).
Since 2008, Sanofi has distributed more than 100 million treatments of ASAQ Winthrop, in endemic countries, with a production centre in Morocco.
Viehbacher said: ‘Thanks to these major partnerships combining public and private actors, as well as non-profit organisations, the elimination of malaria, which yesterday seemed utopian, has now become an achievable goal.’