AP examines future of AMFm following conflicting reports on program's success

The Associated Press examines the debate over the future of the Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria (AMFm), after the recent release of two papers evaluating the program's effectiveness. AMFm was established in 2010 as "a pilot project to subsidize artemesinin combination drugs, the most effective malaria treatment," the AP writes, noting the $460 million program is managed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. "Last week, a report by Oxfam, an international charity, labeled the program a failure and said there was no proof it had saved lives because officials didn't track who received the drugs," the news service writes, adding, "But in another paper published Wednesday in the journal Lancet, experts insisted the program was 'an effective mechanism' to lower the price of preferred malaria drugs and make them widely available." The Global Fund is scheduled to discuss the future of the program at a meeting next month, according to the AP (Cheng, 10/31).