Calculating malaria drug demand 'crucial'

Demand for malaria medication will double over the next four years, according to researchers.

It could grow by as much as 327 per cent to more than 400 million treatments if a global subsidy for the treatment is launched.

The World Health Organization recommends artemisinin-combination therapy (ACT) for malaria.

So investigators from the Clinton Foundation decided to look at how much medication is needed.

They will present their findings to a health conference in the US in December.

An oversupply of drugs could lead to stocks remaining unused past their sell-by-dates.

Conversely too few drugs and there could be a shortage, which would drive up costs.

It can take up to two years for artemisinin from the plant to be extracted and longer still for pharmaceutical companies to develop ACT drugs.

An estimated 40 per cent of the world are at risk of malaria, which kills one child every 30 seconds in Africa, reported the WHO.

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