Putting evidence into practice: how middle and low income countries “get it together”

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Abstract
Imagine a new drug that reduces the absolute risk of treatment failure by three quarters—a rare situation in the West but a reality in countries where malaria is endemic, and where adding artesunate to existing drugs has this effect on cure.1 In middle and low income countries, life threatening infectious diseases are everywhere: new drugs can therefore have large effects on outcomes, and even modest benefits from new interventions can have a dramatic impact on health overall. In addition, wasting resources on ineffective interventions results in technical inefficiencies and substantial opportunity costs in countries least able to afford them; the Global Fund's purchase of ineffective drugs is a recent example.2