PATH and Global Fund take stock of antimalarial efficacy studies

In August 2026, PATH was selected to work closely with The Global Fund to evaluate and optimize antimalarial therapeutic efficacy studies (TES). PATH’s contributions will aid in evidence-based decision-making for national malaria programs and inform future investments and activities from The Global Fund.

TES evaluate the efficacy of the drugs used to treat malaria and generate crucial evidence for national malaria programs to manage treatment policies and guidelines. In Sub-Saharan Africa, growing artemisinin partial drug resistance threatens the efficacy of the current drugs used to treat malaria. Evidence from TES is critical in identifying populations affected by drug resistance and designing mitigation efforts.

The World Health Organization (WHO) advises national programs to conduct TES on a routine basis—ideally every two years—to provide up-to-date information for their own use as well as to share with other stakeholders. The WHO provides clear guidelines and practical tools for TES design and implementation, yet several challenges persist to routinely produce timely and high-quality evidence in many settings.

To address these gaps, PATH’s activities will provide an updated landscape of TES implementation; assess TES quality in focal countries; and provide targeted technical assistance to address bottlenecks to timely and quality TES completion. This work is intended to improve stakeholder access to updated TES implementation information, address technical capacity gaps that are contributing to stalled TES outputs, and support optimization of The Global Fund’s TES investments by identifying proven or promising quality-assurance mechanisms.

The PATH team has worked with national malaria programs in 20 countries for over 20 years—supporting the development of national strategic plans and the implementation of national operational plans, informing policies, strategies and guidelines with evidence, and strengthening surveillance systems. Under the US Government-supported project, Reaching Every At-Risk Community and Household with Malaria Services, PATH is currently working with Université Cheikh Ante Diop, a university in Dakar, Senegal, and research partners in 13 African countries to design, implement, analyze, and disseminate findings from TES. Through these efforts to ensure timely and high-quality drug efficacy data, PATH continues to serve as a trusted partner to malaria programs for supporting timely evidence to guide critical policies and guidelines.

PATH looks forward to working closely with The Global Fund, the WHO, national malaria programs, and TES research partners to complete this work and provide recommendations by the end of the year.