Novartis To Continue Making Malaria, Leprosy Drugs Despite Aid Cuts

Reuters (5/12, Rigby) reports Novartis will continue to manufacture “medicines for malaria and leprosy, even if it does not get orders as normal amid the global health funding crunch, its president of global health told Reuters in an interview.” Dr. Lutz Hegemann said, “We are not going to produce based on demand, because we know that these medicines are needed, and we need to be creative in finding ways to get them from the factory to patients.” The company “makes 28 million malaria treatment courses every year, and sells almost all of them a not-for-profit price to countries and groups,” including the US-government-funded President’s Malaria Initiative. The comments come as US initiatives funding global health scale back spending.