Assessing readiness to respond to antimalarial drug resistance in Africa
Amp Health is partnering with Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) to work with selected African countries to assess their readiness in responding to antimalarial drug resistance (AMDR), an increasingly urgent threat to malaria control and elimination efforts.
Resistance to artemisinin, the key component of artemisinin-based combination therapy, is emerging in several African countries and threatens the effectiveness of current first-line treatment for malaria. For national malaria programmes, the challenge is not only to detect and monitor changes in antimalarial drug efficacy and resistance, but also to determine how and when to respond. Countries need to protect the effectiveness of existing treatments and prepare for the introduction of new tools. These decisions require timely evidence, strategic planning, coordination across institutions, and the ability to adapt as evidence and the resistance landscape evolve.
What readiness means in practice
Through this partnership, Amp Health and MMV aim to work with ministries of health in selected countries to conduct an AMDR readiness analysis. MMV brings expertise in the discovery, development and delivery of new antimalarial medicines, while Amp Health brings experience strengthening public-sector strategy, coordination, evidence use and decision-making, and programme execution.
The analysis will look across several dimensions of readiness, including how countries currently:
Understand and respond to evolving resistance threats, using timely evidence to inform national strategies
Assess policy and technology options, including their potential health, cost, and feasibility implications
Plan strategically for the deployment of new tools, including decisions about when and where changes to current standards of care may be warranted
Coordinate and make decisions, including at senior levels within ministries of health
Plan to build the institutional capabilities needed to adapt, as evidence, disease dynamics, technologies, and available resources change
Ensuring readiness comes at a time when many national malaria programmes are also navigating a rapidly changing global health financing environment. New tools and strategies to address AMDR are expected to become increasingly available, while countries will need to assess their feasibility, affordability, timing, and likely health benefits alongside competing priorities.
The goal is to contribute to a clearer understanding of what countries see as their most important needs in preparing for the next phase of the AMDR response, and where stronger national systems can help turn emerging evidence and innovation into effective, sustainable action.
