November 14, 2012
The Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria (AMFm), an innovative financing mechanism designed to expand access to effective malaria treatments in developing countries, has made news recently due to the passionate debates surrounding its continuation. With the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria expected to come to a decision regarding the future of the program tomorrow, here we bring our readers a roundup of press coverage of AMFm so far:
In an op-ed article published yesterday in The New York Times, Dr. Kenneth Arrow warns that efforts to find the “perfect” solution to malaria could end up killing effective programs like AMFm. He also asserts that it is high time the international aid community listened to malaria control program managers from AMFm pilot countries, who have unanimously supported AMFm. [The New York Times]
In an article published in the Malaria Journal, public health officers at or working closely with the national malaria control programs in the eight AMFm pilot phase countries emphasize the need to continue and expand the basic architecture of the AMFm subsidy and price negotiations to include more countries, while adapting country-specific strategies and promoting the use of RDTs. [Malaria Journal]
