Will a Global Subsidy of Artemisinin-Based Combination Treatment (ACT) for Malaria Delay the Emergence of Resistance and Save Lives?

Artemisinin-based combination treatments (ACTs) are seen as an important tool in the global effort to roll back malaria. With rapidly increasing parasite resistance to chloroquine in many parts of the world, there is greater international recognition of the need for both a different antimalarial and...

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Main Authors: Laxminarayan, Ramanan, Over, Mead, Smith, David L.
Format: Publications & Research
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/07/6078983/global-subsidy-artemisinin-based-combination-treatment-act-malaria-delay-emergence-resistance-save-lives
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8195
id okr-10986-8195
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-81952021-04-23T14:02:43Z Will a Global Subsidy of Artemisinin-Based Combination Treatment (ACT) for Malaria Delay the Emergence of Resistance and Save Lives? Laxminarayan, Ramanan Over, Mead Smith, David L. CLIMATE COMMON PROPERTY CONSUMER CHOICE CONSUMERS CROWDING OUT DEATH RATE DEMAND CURVES DEMAND ELASTICITY ECONOMETRICS ELASTICITY ELASTICITY OF DEMAND EMPIRICAL STUDIES EPILEPSY EQUILIBRIUM FISHERIES FUTURE RESEARCH HEALTH CARE IMMUNITY INCOME INFECTIOUS DISEASES INTERVENTION MALARIA MARGINAL COST MARGINAL COSTS MATHEMATICAL MODELS MORBIDITY MORTALITY NEGATIVE EXTERNALITIES NUTRITION PARTNERSHIP PATIENTS PRICE DECREASES PRICE ELASTICITIES PRICE ELASTICITY PRICE SUBSIDIES PRODUCERS PUBLIC GOOD PUBLIC GOODS SPREAD STREAMS SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA SUBSTITUTION SUBSTITUTION ELASTICITIES SUPPLIERS TRADEOFFS Artemisinin-based combination treatments (ACTs) are seen as an important tool in the global effort to roll back malaria. With rapidly increasing parasite resistance to chloroquine in many parts of the world, there is greater international recognition of the need for both a different antimalarial and a coordinated malaria treatment strategy to ensure that resistance does not needlessly cut short the useful therapeutic life of any successor drug to chloroquine. The effectiveness of antimalarial drugs is a global public good, of particular value in malarious regions that also are among the most economically impoverished parts of the world. Inappropriate drug use in neighboring countries reduces the incentive of any given country to deploy drug regimens that may be rapidly undermined by resistance originating outside their borders. Therefore, a case can be made for globally coordinated action to protect the effectiveness of these valuable drugs. Translating this case to one for a global subsidy is not straightforward. On the one hand, in the absence of such a subsidy to ensure that ACTs are comparably priced to monotherapies, increasing monotherapy of artemisinin and other antimalarials that would be used along with artemisinin in ACT will hasten the demise of this drug. On the other hand, a global subsidy would greatly increase the use and potential misuse of ACTs and could result in resistance emerging at a more rapid rate. This study finds that a subsidy to ACTs is likely to slow the rate of emergence of resistance to artemisinin and partner drugs, even if such a subsidy were to increase the use of ACTs significantly. This conclusion is robust to alternative assumptions regarding the responsiveness of demand to the lower price for ACTs and a wide range of epidemiological and economic parameters. However, the simulation results show that a subsidy for two or more ACT combinations is likely to be much more cost-effective than a subsidy to a single ACT. The only consideration is that the drugs used as partners to artemisinin be unrelated to each other and to artemisinin in mechanism of action and in genetic bases of resistance, so that a single mutation cannot encode resistance to both components. Such a subsidy program for ACTs, administered globally, that reduces reliance on any single combination, and discourages monotherapy, not only of artemisinin but of any effective antimalarial that could potentially be used as partner drug with artemisinin, is likely to be effective (and cost-effective) both in buying time for ACTs and in saving lives 2012-06-15T19:57:36Z 2012-06-15T19:57:36Z 2005-07 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/07/6078983/global-subsidy-artemisinin-based-combination-treatment-act-malaria-delay-emergence-resistance-save-lives http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8195 English Policy Research Working Paper; No. 3670 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic CLIMATE
COMMON PROPERTY
CONSUMER CHOICE
CONSUMERS
CROWDING OUT
DEATH RATE
DEMAND CURVES
DEMAND ELASTICITY
ECONOMETRICS
ELASTICITY
ELASTICITY OF DEMAND
EMPIRICAL STUDIES
EPILEPSY
EQUILIBRIUM
FISHERIES
FUTURE RESEARCH
HEALTH CARE
IMMUNITY
INCOME
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
INTERVENTION
MALARIA
MARGINAL COST
MARGINAL COSTS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MORBIDITY
MORTALITY
NEGATIVE EXTERNALITIES
NUTRITION
PARTNERSHIP
PATIENTS
PRICE DECREASES
PRICE ELASTICITIES
PRICE ELASTICITY
PRICE SUBSIDIES
PRODUCERS
PUBLIC GOOD
PUBLIC GOODS
SPREAD
STREAMS
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
SUBSTITUTION
SUBSTITUTION ELASTICITIES
SUPPLIERS
TRADEOFFS
spellingShingle CLIMATE
COMMON PROPERTY
CONSUMER CHOICE
CONSUMERS
CROWDING OUT
DEATH RATE
DEMAND CURVES
DEMAND ELASTICITY
ECONOMETRICS
ELASTICITY
ELASTICITY OF DEMAND
EMPIRICAL STUDIES
EPILEPSY
EQUILIBRIUM
FISHERIES
FUTURE RESEARCH
HEALTH CARE
IMMUNITY
INCOME
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
INTERVENTION
MALARIA
MARGINAL COST
MARGINAL COSTS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MORBIDITY
MORTALITY
NEGATIVE EXTERNALITIES
NUTRITION
PARTNERSHIP
PATIENTS
PRICE DECREASES
PRICE ELASTICITIES
PRICE ELASTICITY
PRICE SUBSIDIES
PRODUCERS
PUBLIC GOOD
PUBLIC GOODS
SPREAD
STREAMS
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
SUBSTITUTION
SUBSTITUTION ELASTICITIES
SUPPLIERS
TRADEOFFS
Laxminarayan, Ramanan
Over, Mead
Smith, David L.
Will a Global Subsidy of Artemisinin-Based Combination Treatment (ACT) for Malaria Delay the Emergence of Resistance and Save Lives?
relation Policy Research Working Paper; No. 3670
description Artemisinin-based combination treatments (ACTs) are seen as an important tool in the global effort to roll back malaria. With rapidly increasing parasite resistance to chloroquine in many parts of the world, there is greater international recognition of the need for both a different antimalarial and a coordinated malaria treatment strategy to ensure that resistance does not needlessly cut short the useful therapeutic life of any successor drug to chloroquine. The effectiveness of antimalarial drugs is a global public good, of particular value in malarious regions that also are among the most economically impoverished parts of the world. Inappropriate drug use in neighboring countries reduces the incentive of any given country to deploy drug regimens that may be rapidly undermined by resistance originating outside their borders. Therefore, a case can be made for globally coordinated action to protect the effectiveness of these valuable drugs. Translating this case to one for a global subsidy is not straightforward. On the one hand, in the absence of such a subsidy to ensure that ACTs are comparably priced to monotherapies, increasing monotherapy of artemisinin and other antimalarials that would be used along with artemisinin in ACT will hasten the demise of this drug. On the other hand, a global subsidy would greatly increase the use and potential misuse of ACTs and could result in resistance emerging at a more rapid rate. This study finds that a subsidy to ACTs is likely to slow the rate of emergence of resistance to artemisinin and partner drugs, even if such a subsidy were to increase the use of ACTs significantly. This conclusion is robust to alternative assumptions regarding the responsiveness of demand to the lower price for ACTs and a wide range of epidemiological and economic parameters. However, the simulation results show that a subsidy for two or more ACT combinations is likely to be much more cost-effective than a subsidy to a single ACT. The only consideration is that the drugs used as partners to artemisinin be unrelated to each other and to artemisinin in mechanism of action and in genetic bases of resistance, so that a single mutation cannot encode resistance to both components. Such a subsidy program for ACTs, administered globally, that reduces reliance on any single combination, and discourages monotherapy, not only of artemisinin but of any effective antimalarial that could potentially be used as partner drug with artemisinin, is likely to be effective (and cost-effective) both in buying time for ACTs and in saving lives
format Publications & Research
author Laxminarayan, Ramanan
Over, Mead
Smith, David L.
author_facet Laxminarayan, Ramanan
Over, Mead
Smith, David L.
author_sort Laxminarayan, Ramanan
title Will a Global Subsidy of Artemisinin-Based Combination Treatment (ACT) for Malaria Delay the Emergence of Resistance and Save Lives?
title_short Will a Global Subsidy of Artemisinin-Based Combination Treatment (ACT) for Malaria Delay the Emergence of Resistance and Save Lives?
title_full Will a Global Subsidy of Artemisinin-Based Combination Treatment (ACT) for Malaria Delay the Emergence of Resistance and Save Lives?
title_fullStr Will a Global Subsidy of Artemisinin-Based Combination Treatment (ACT) for Malaria Delay the Emergence of Resistance and Save Lives?
title_full_unstemmed Will a Global Subsidy of Artemisinin-Based Combination Treatment (ACT) for Malaria Delay the Emergence of Resistance and Save Lives?
title_sort will a global subsidy of artemisinin-based combination treatment (act) for malaria delay the emergence of resistance and save lives?
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2012
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/07/6078983/global-subsidy-artemisinin-based-combination-treatment-act-malaria-delay-emergence-resistance-save-lives
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8195
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