Scaling malaria interventions: bottlenecks to malaria elimination

Area of Science:

• Global Health
• Infectious Disease Control
• Health Systems Strengthening

Background:

• Malaria elimination efforts face slow progress and increasing challenges.
• There is a critical need to accelerate research and development (R&D), launch, and scaling of effective malaria interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify challenges in the end-to-end scale-up pathway of malaria interventions.
• To propose actionable strategies for accelerating malaria control and elimination.

Main Methods:

• Desk research
• Key informant interviews

Main Results:

• Identified challenges include underinvestment in malaria R&D, exclusion of low-resource developers, unclear regulatory pathways, limited private sector engagement, and fragmented malaria programs.
• Underinvestment in R&D and limited private sector engagement result in a less competitive market and low product supply.

Conclusions:

• Strengthen stakeholder coordination, particularly with the private sector, to mobilize resources.
• Increase national stakeholder engagement in R&D, launch, and scaling of interventions, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
• Utilize financial incentives and market-shaping strategies to drive R&D for innovative malaria products and improve existing interventions.
• Streamline WHO prequalification processes and enhance transparency for timely technical advice.
• Integrate malaria services into primary healthcare systems and generate evidence to inform access policies.