USAID's Key Achievements

USAID's Leadership on the Ground

In the fight against malaria, USAID, through the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), is providing global leadership and support for country implementation in the following ways:

1. Recognizing and treating malaria in the home, community, private sector, and primary health care facility, including providing support to the Malaria Communities Program, the CORE GROUPand country nongovernmental organization coordinating mechanisms, and collaborating agency projects


2. Developing partnerships in the areas of prevention and treatment, including the central NetWorks Project and country-specific collaborations with Population Services International


3. Integrating malaria in pregnancy into reproductive and maternal/neonatal health programs and working to strengthen those programs (e.g., MCHIP - the Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program)


4. Strengthening preventive-vector control programs, including insecticide-treated mosquito nets, indoor residual spraying (largely through a central contract with RTI International and Abt Associates), and the Integrated Vector Management Project


5. Developing new tools and systems for laboratory diagnosis of malaria, information systems, supply chain management, drug quality, and program management


6. Working with the World Health Organization (WHO) to establish regional coordinating bodies in the Amazon Basin and Mekong Delta region, and supporting Roll Back Malaria (RBM) and RBM’s Subregional Networks in Africa


7. Working with partners at the global level, including WHO, RBM, UNICEF, and the World Bank, as well as foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to coordinate and focus global malaria control efforts, including support to countries for successful Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria grant applications


8. Supporting research and development into new tools to fight malaria, including new malarial vaccines and antimalarial drugs
   

The key achievement is reduction in malaria-related illness and death. While the PMI is certainly not working alone, the countries it supports are beginning to see significant impact, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zambia.

USAID's Key Achievements in Malaria

USAID Support to Antimalarial Drug Discovery and Development
Because of the spread and intensification of antimalarial drug resistance and the limited number of new antimalarial drugs available, USAID supports discovery and development of new antimalarial drugs through the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a nonprofit, public-private partnership created in 1999. The research and development activities are carried out at a broad variety of institutions, comprising more than 40 academic and pharmaceutical organizations that are located in 10 different countries, including the United States. MMV currently has 38 products in its research and development portfolio at various stages of development, from the discovery phase to late-stage clinical development. These include three artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) and a dispersible formulation of artemether-lumefantrine for young children, which has now been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Two other ACTs, dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine and pyronaridine-artesunate, are in late-stage clinical trials and were expected to be registered by 2010.

Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV)

USAID a Leader in the Global Effort to Develop Malaria Vaccines
Since its inception in 1966, the USAID Malaria Vaccine Development Program (MVDP) has been a major contributor to progress toward a vaccine to prevent disease and death due to malaria. Today, it continues to work with partners in the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services and the Program for Appropriate Technology for Health's Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), as well as international partners, toward the development of vaccines with greater efficacy than the single malaria vaccine now on track for licensure in 2011. This vaccine, initially developed by GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals (GSK) with U.S. Government support, will soon enter pivotal field trials, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through MVI. However, this first generation vaccine is likely to have an efficacy of about 50 percent, which is less than what is needed. Consequently, USAID and its partners are implementing a multifaceted strategy to develop an advanced product while evaluating the potential role of the GSK vaccine in malaria control programs. The internationally agreed upon goal for the next generation vaccine is at least 80 percent efficacy against clinical malaria.

Access more information on USAID’s Malaria Vaccine Development Program.

Strengthening Roll Back Malaria
USAID has been a key partner in the RBM initiative since its inception in late 1998. USAID helps support the secretariats for two of the working groups, and USAID staff serve as members of the major RBM Working Groups on malaria in pregnancy, vector control, monitoring and evaluation, and procurement and supply chain management. As a funder and member of the RBM Harmonization Working Group, USAID has played an important role in the success rate of greater than 75 percent for African countries’ Global Fund malaria grant applications during the last two rounds (Rounds 9 and 10) of Global Fund applications.

RBM Harmonization Working Group