@inbook{76b54a27eca849f58d8423d5071cd51c,
title = "Policy Interventions for an Agriculture-Based Malaria Medicine Supply Chain",
abstract = "In this chapter, we examine policy interventions to improve the efficiency and risk mitigation methods in an agriculture-based malaria medicine. Artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) is the most effective malaria treatment. ACT is obtained from artemisinin which is extracted from the leaves of plant called Artemisia annua. The price of artemisinin exhibited significant variations in recent years. Our study benefits donor organizations such the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and malaria and the US President{\textquoteright}s Malaria Initiative, the World Health Organization, UNITAID, the United Kingdom Department for International Development, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in multiple ways: it helps increase the level of artemisinin production, reduce volatility of artemisinin prices, and improve access to malaria medicines for the regions in need. Using field data, our model shows that interventions aimed at improving average yield, creating a support-price for agricultural artemisinin, and carefully managing the supply of semi-synthetic artemisinin help improve the supply of artemisinin, reducing the price fluctuations in the malaria medicine.",
keywords = "Health care, Malaria, Supply and demand uncertainty",
author = "Burak Kazaz and Scott Webster and Prashant Yadav",
note = "Funding Information: Given the current challenges in supply and demand for ACTs, organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNITAID, Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and the UK Department for International Development began to explore if certain investments/interventions can improve outcomes in terms of availability and price. One primary intervention is focused on stabilizing artemisinin prices. In 2008, the Clinton Foundation agreed with several Chinese and Indian manufacturers to establish price ceilings in the effort to stabilize ACT prices (Schoofs 2008). A second intervention involves the use of forward contracts. In 2009, UNITAID{\textquoteright}s Assured Artemisinin Supply Services (A2S2) provided WHO-qualified extractors to receive loan-based pre-financing. The goal was to increase supply and create “fair prices” through loan-based prepayments. Unfortunately, none of these interventions stabilized prices completely (UNITAID 2011; Shretta and Yadav 2012). A third intervention involves the semi-synthetic production of artemisinin. Through the financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a research group at the University of California-Berkeley and Institute for One World Health has developed a semi-synthetic manufacturing process without having to rely on the plant-based production of the ACT treatment (Hale et al. 2007). Commercial-scale manufacturing of semi-synthetic artemisinin continues to be far from feasibility (Paddon and Keasling 2014; Reuters 2014); thus, it is unlikely to contribute to the elimination of price uncertainty in artemisinin. Moreover, some publications highlight that a larger supply of semi-synthetic artemisinin can also contribute to the volatility in artemisinin supply and prices because farmers may exit the growth of the plant faster than the increase in semi-synthetic manufacturing capability (Van Noordan 2010; Peplow 2013). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.",
year = "2022",
doi = "10.1007/978-3-030-81423-6_13",
language = "English (US)",
series = "Springer Series in Supply Chain Management",
publisher = "Springer Nature",
pages = "229--245",
booktitle = "Springer Series in Supply Chain Management",
address = "United States",
}