Malaria - Private Sector Pharmaceutical Marketing & Differential Pricing for Malaria Medicines in French-speaking African Countries

Sanofi-aventis is the world’s third largest pharmaceutical company with a commitment to the Southern Hemisphere, and particularly malaria. The company’s malaria program, called Impact Malaria, focuses on 4 areas:
1. Research and development of new anti-malarial products
2. Setting new therapeutic strategies with currently available medicines
3. Training and educating all the actors of the healthcare pyramid about the disease
4. Making drugs available for every patient in need, including setting up a tiered pricing strategy

The last two points were the focus of the seminar.

First the seminar provided a concrete example of how a company set up a price and distribution policy to improve access to malaria medicines. While recognizing the complex distribution networks that exist in Africa and the wide range of income per capita, sanofi-aventis set up an Access Card Program (CAP) that targets each patient group through different distribution channels. All sanofi-aventis malaria medicines are available at a "no profit no loss" price to the public sector, international organizations fighting malaria, non-governmental and religious organizations. Africa also has a private market operating through retail pharmacies, which stock both standard-priced products and products available through "no profit no loss" prices as part of the CAP program. By bringing down all of the players’ margins, including those of the pharmacists and wholesalers, the price of antimalarial drugs can be reduced by over 70%. The program is currently operating in Cameroon, Gabon, Madagascar, and is being extended to Sub-Saharan Africa.

The seminar also described two examples of Information Education and Communication (IEC) programs organized by sanofi-aventis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola, in order implement the change in anti-malaria treatment policy utilizing artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs).

In addition to malaria, sanofi-aventis has identified 5 therapeutic areas for which concrete solutions can be envisioned following the same principles: leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness, tuberculosis, epilepsy, and the preventive field of vaccines.