Malaria is a major public health challenge that threatens approximately half of the world’s population. Malaria claims the life of a child in Africa each minute and the life of a pregnant woman worldwide each hour. In 2010, there were more than 219 million cases globally.

However, the situation is now far better than it was even ten years ago. Thanks to increased funding for malaria programmes, better tools, and increased control efforts, worldwide malaria deaths have decreased by 26% since 2000. Between 2001 and 2010, there were 274 million fewer cases and 1.1 million fewer malaria deaths.

New tools have made an important contribution to this progress and are the outcome of increasing investment in research and development (R&D) over the past two decades. The 2011 global investment of US$610 million in malaria R&D is nearly five times larger than the $131 million invested in 1993, and almost double the 2004 total of $320 million.