Funding Commitment to Accelerate Malaria Research

MANHIÇA, MOZAMBIQUE – The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced three grants totaling $168 million to fight malaria – a disease that, due to increased drug resistance, is on the rise in Africa for the first time in 20 years, killing more than one million people annually.  The grants will accelerate research on new malaria prevention strategies for children, new drugs to fight drug-resistant malaria, and malaria vaccines.

Bill and Melinda Gates made the grant announcement – one of the largest in the foundation’s history – after meeting with doctors and patients at a malaria treatment and research center in Manhiça, a region heavily affected by malaria.  They were joined by Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi and Deputy Health Minister Aida Libombo.

“It’s time to treat Africa’s malaria epidemic like the crisis it is,” Mr. Gates said.  “It is unacceptable that 3,000 African children die every day from a largely preventable and treatable disease.”

“Malaria is robbing Africa of its people and its potential,” said Gates.  “Beyond the extraordinary human toll, malaria is one of the greatest barriers to Africa’s economic growth, draining national health budgets and deepening poverty.”

Mr. Gates called for a renewed global fight against malaria, a disease that infects 300 to 500 million people and kills more than one million people every year – 90 percent of them in Africa, the vast majority of them children.  The disease costs the continent an estimated $12 billion in lost GDP every year, and consumes 40 percent of all public health spending.

Malaria’s resurgence in Africa is fueled by an increase in resistance to available drugs.  Experts estimate that up to 80 percent of malaria in some parts of Africa is resistant to chloroquine, the cheapest standard drug.  Other, very effective drugs exist, but their cost puts them out of reach of most Africans.

Grants for Malaria Vaccine, Drug Research
The funding announced today will support three major research grants (see attached fact sheet for additional details):

• New prevention strategies:  $28 million over five years for research on a promising malaria control strategy known as intermittent preventive treatment in infants (IPTi), a potential way to use existing malaria drugs to dramatically decrease the rate at which young infants become severely ill from malaria.  As part of this approach, infants receive an anti-malaria drug three times during the first year of life, at the time of routine immunization.  An initial study completed in 2001 found that the intervention reduced malaria incidence among infants by 59 percent, and halved the incidence of severe anemia, the most common life-threatening form of malaria in this age group.  That this could be achieved by delivery of an available and affordable anti-malaria drug suggests that IPTi could become an important new weapon against the disease.
• New drugs:  $40 million over five years to the Medicines for Malaria Venture, a public-private partnership based in Geneva, to help fight the spread of drug-resistant malaria by discovering, developing, and delivering new malaria drugs.  The grant will provide resources for MMV to advance its impressive pipeline of twenty-one drug development projects, including support to accelerate the development of four promising candidate drugs with significant public health potential.  MMV’s goal is to ensure that at least one new anti-malaria drug is licensed by 2010, and to ensure that new drugs are affordable and widely available in developing countries.
• Vaccines:  $100 million over four years to the Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), based at Program for Appropriate Technology in Health in Seattle.  MVI will use the grant to continue development of 15 vaccine candidates currently in its portfolio, add other promising candidates, assess the potential of new combination vaccines and vaccine technologies, and address financial and policy barriers to vaccine development. 

“Investment in malaria research has fallen far short of the need,” said Dr. Jong-Wook Lee, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).  “These grants will allow many more researchers to aggressively pursue promising leads for malaria drugs and vaccines, and quickly move research from the lab to the field.“

Additional Resources Urgently Needed
Mr. Gates emphasized that, while the grants announced today are an important step, far greater resources are urgently needed to expand malaria research, and to scale up access to existing malaria tools – such as use of insecticide-treated bednets, mosquito control, prompt and effective treatment for children, and presumptive malaria treatment for pregnant women.

“World leaders must recognize that, like AIDS, malaria is a crisis that demands urgent and sustained action,” said Gates.  “Both diseases take a terrible toll in Africa, destroying families, communities, and economies.  And just like AIDS, malaria can only be tackled by expanding access to the tools we have now, and aggressively pursuing the development of new drugs and vaccines.”

Current spending on malaria control is estimated at $200 million annually – far less than the estimated $1.5 to $2.5 billion needed.  If malaria control programs are fully funded, experts project that malaria deaths could be cut in half by 2010 and halved again by 2015.  Malaria research is also severely underfunded – current global R&D spending is approximately $100 million annually, far less than the amount needed. 

African Countries Taking Action
Mr. Gates commended leaders in Mozambique and other African countries for devoting increased attention and resources to the fight against malaria.  African governments contribute an estimated $80 million of the $200 million currently spent every year to control the disease. 

Mr. Gates cited Mozambique as one of the countries hardest hit by malaria, but also a country that is home to cutting-edge, world-class malaria research.  The Manhiça research center, where the grants were announced, is at the forefront of efforts to expand biomedical research capacity in low-income countries, and is currently conducting a phase II trial of a potential malaria vaccine.

According to WHO and UNICEF, other African countries have stepped up their malaria control efforts.  Tanzania and Eritrea have launched unprecedented efforts to promote the use of bed nets. South Africa, Zambia and Burundi are using powerful new medicines to counter malaria’s resistance to chloroquine.  And Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda are working to ensure immediate access to treatment for their citizens. 

About Malaria
Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes.  Worldwide, there are four species of human malaria parasites. The most deadly of the variants, Plasmodium falciparum, is the most common in Africa, and accounts for roughly 90 percent of malaria deaths. 

Inside the body, the parasite infects the liver and red blood cells.  Symptoms, which typically appear within 9 to 14 days, include fever, headache, vomiting, and other flu-like symptoms.  Without rapid treatment, malaria destroys red blood cells and impairs blood flow to vital organs.  Children under 5, who often lack immunity against malaria, and pregnant women, whose immune systems are altered, are especially vulnerable to the disease. 

Mr. and Mrs. Gates are traveling to Mozambique, South Africa and Botswana this week to draw attention to the impact of malaria and HIV/AIDS, and to meet with local leaders and health experts.  In South Africa, they will join Nelson Mandela and his wife, Graça Machel, at a youth forum that will focus on the need for aggressive HIV prevention efforts.  In Botswana, they will visit the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships (ACHAP), a national HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment program supported in part by a $50 million grant from the foundation. 

On the Internet:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, www.gatesfoundation.org
Malaria Vaccine Initiative, www.malariavaccine.org
Medicines for Malaria Venture, www.mmv.org