Linda Stevens, the product manager at the company based in Basel, Switzerland, said Novartis has completed the registration in some developing countries and hoped to start selling the drug in them as soon as possible. Daniel Berman, spokesman for Medecins sans Frontieres' campaign for access to essential medicine, said the offer was a good deal because in some countries resistance to other malaria treatments was up to 80 percent. Under pressure to reduce their prices in poor countries, drugs companies have moved to cut the price of treatments for AIDS in recent months. Other companies also supply free or cut-price drugs for a number of other diseases that affect developing countries. Raeber said Novartis is interested in expanding the types of drugs it offers in developing countries and would provide free leprosy drugs for the next few years.
Malaria kills more people than any other communicable disease except tuberculosis.
Victims suffer fever, shivering, pain in the joints, convulsions and comas. The disease is spread by the Plasmodium parasite transmitted in the bite of the Anopheles mosquito. Copyright 2001, The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Please read it.