Ghana, Kenya – first countries to receive medicines

As of mid-November 2010, seven out of nine grant amendments had been signed with PRs in countries that are involved in Phase 1 of the Affordable Medicine Facility – malaria (AMFm). The first countries to receive medicines under the AMFm were Ghana and Kenya.

The AMFm is a mechanism designed to expand access to affordable artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) for malaria through the private sector by reducing the cost of ACT drugs, and by ensuring that additional activities, such as public information campaigns, are carried out. The AMFm is currently being piloted in eight countries ­– Cambodia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania (mainland and Zanzibar) and Uganda.

As Aidspan reported in GFO 136, the Global Fund Board decided at its December 2010 meeting to extend Phase 1 of the AMFm by six months, to November 2012, due to delays experienced in getting Phase 1 underway.

Kenya has undertaken a media launch to formally initiate AMFm implementation in that country. Ghana and Nigeria have organised workshops with stakeholders to establish timelines for their launches. Kenya, Madagascar, Niger and Tanzania have identified sub-recipients (SRs) to implement AMFm marketing activities. In addition, master supply agreements that outline the contractual relationship between the Global Fund and ACT manufacturers have been concluded with all eligible AMFm Phase 1 manufacturers.

As of mid-November 2010, 110 buyers from all but one of the AMFm Phase 1 countries had signed a “First Line Buyer Undertaking.” The majority of buyers (104) and orders are from the private sector and NGOs. (The relative lack of public sector procurement is due to the need for the public sector to use tenders, and to country procurement procedures that frequently are time-consuming.)

As of mid-November 2010, the Global Fund Secretariat had received 51 requests for co-payment of ACTs costing $21.5 million – enough to provide almost 21 million treatments.

Under the AMFm, the Global Fund pays for a portion of the cost of the drugs. The Global Fund established an AMFm Co-Payment Fund and solicited contributions from other organisations. As of mid-November 2010, contributions to the co-payment fund totalling about $216 million have been received from UNITAID, the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DfID) and the Gates Foundation.

Information for this article was taken from the “Report of the AMFm Ad-Hoc Committee,” December 2010, Document GF/B22/10, which should be available shortly at www.theglobalfund.org/en/board/meetings/twentysecond/documents.