At the end of last year, a deadly outbreak in a remote part of the Democratic Republic of Congo sparked global panic when it was dubbed “Disease X.” The real culprit wasn’t a new mystery illness, but a severe form of a known killer: Malaria complicated by respiratory infections, malnutrition and a lack of access to primary health care services.
The headlines have since moved on, but malaria remains a relentless threat, killing nearly 600,000 people in 2023 — most of them children under 5. That is more than 1,000 young lives lost every day to a disease we know how to treat.
That means that lifesaving medicines still aren’t reaching those in need. To change that, considerations around access must be baked in from the beginning, starting with the R & D phase and through each stage of a medical products’ lifecycle.
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