My time at CURE Pharmaceutical taught me that it's not enough to create just one great drug to alleviate malaria (or any disease, for that matter) - it's necessary to create several.
The body's simple physiological response to the same medication over and over again is to develop a resistance to that drug. Therefore, even though Coartem is a fantastic drug that saves many children with malaria, there needs to be four, five, six, even seven Coartem-like drugs out there. Even though it's quite expensive to create new drugs (as detailed above), the trending is telling global health stakeholders that there is no greater health priority than helping solve drug resistance.
This resonates deeply with organizations like the Center for Global Development, which just published a fascinating report entitled "The Race Against Drug Resistance." Click here to see the report.
I won't steal the thunder of the report, but I will relay it's call to action (it was really quite thought provoking). Consider the following:
"We have the means to slow the advance of drug resistance...
Donors and philanthropic organizations need to ensure that their laudable efforts to increase access to drugs in the developing world are accompanied by measures to protect the continued efficacy of drug treatment...
Companies need to prioritize resistance reduction in their research and development strategies, and ensure that their products remain of the highest quality throughout the distribution process...
Governments have a responsibility to provide regulation and oversight of distribution and use, as well as to properly support public health laboratory facilities and surveillance systems to detect and monitor drug efficacy...
...For the sake of all people who seek effective health care, now and in the future, drug resistance must be addressed urgently and aggressively as a global health priority."
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