Between 2019 and 2022, we partnered with BASF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to reduce the price of, and accelerate access to, at least 35 million next-generation mosquito nets.
We projected that:
Impact reported at the end of 2021:
The partnership between MedAccess, the Gates Foundation and BASF was launched in October 2019 and the agreement ended in December 2022. It accelerated access to a new and innovative mosquito-control technology at lower prices for communities with the greatest needs.
The agreement enabled BASF to better plan long-term resources and reduce the cost of the new mosquito nets by an average of 40%. This made the nets more accessible and affordable for countries where insecticide resistance is growing, and conventional nets are becoming less effective.
Insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) help to prevent the spread of malaria by providing a physical barrier between mosquitoes and sleeping people and by using a chemical to kill mosquitoes. In 2019, an estimated 46% of all people at risk of malaria in Africa were protected by an ITN, compared to 2% in 2000.
In addition, growing resistance among mosquitoes to pyrethroids – the main insecticide class used in ITNs – is threatening to hinder progress. Resistance to pyrethroids has been reported in 73 of the 81 malaria-endemic countries, covering all regions of sub-Saharan Africa. This resistance makes mosquito nets less effective in preventing malaria cases.
Despite its benefits, uptake of this new BASF net was expected to be slow due to market-related barriers. Limited visibility on future order volumes meant that BASF would have difficulty scaling up production, which would have kept prices significantly above traditional pyrethroid nets. By working with our partners to guarantee a minimum sales volume of mosquito nets over the life of the guarantee, BASF had the certainty required to scale up production and reduce prices.
Our guarantee built on the commitment of organisations such as the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) who partnered with BASF to support the development of the nets. It also supported the objectives of the New Nets Project co-financed by the Global Fund and Unitaid.
Lives changed: impact was based on projections developed by malaria modelling experts at Imperial College London. The figures provided by Imperial represent the impact of switching from standard long-lasting insecticide-treated nets to Interceptor® G2 nets within the countries where the nets are distributed.
Money saved: the price of individual nets varies by size. Impact was estimated based on actual price reductions for an average-sized net over the course of the volume guarantee.
Markets shaped: we work with partners, including donors, procurers and ministries of health, to track changes in health markets where our investments are supporting access to products. We monitor for changes to policy, procurement practices and supplier movement, all of which affect markets and contribute to the long-term sustainability of impact. To quantify change against a baseline, we used publicly available indicators as proxies for market-wide change.
See our development impact page and latest Annual Review for more information.
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