Malaria, caused by mosquito bites infect around 500 million people each year out of which one million die because of the lack of access to the medicines. Keeping the fact in mind that poor and needy people are not getting access to the medication, former US president Bill Clinton has taken a lead by signing a deal with six pharmaceutical companies form China and India to lower the price of the anti-malaria drug.

This will make it easier for the ones who are suffering from malaria, but cannot afford the medicines due to high prices.

Artemisinin, an extract from the plant known as wormwood or safewort, long used by the Chinese for their medicines and takes 14-months to produce has been found an affective player in eliminating malaria.

World Health Organization (WHO) highly recommends the use of Artemisinin based combination therapies, or ACT drugs because of growing resistance to older treatments such as chloroquine.

The price of this extract from past few years has been ranging from $150 to $1,100 a kilogram (2.2 lb) in the past four years. The deal signed by Clinton will aim at controlling price of artemisinin by lowering its price by 70 percent.

Dai Ellis, The Clinton Foundation’s Executive vice president for access program said that the two Chinese suppliers of the drug would sell it to four Indian companies at no more than $136 a pound.

The Indian companies included in the agreement are Calyx, Mangalam, Icpa and Cipla, which are all Mumbai based firms. The two Chinese companies are Holleypharm located in Chongqing and PIDI Standard at Guangzhou.

The deal will lower the price of the crucially-needed drug by 30 percent and thus will make it affordable in 69 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Carribean.

Clinton, in a statement, said that almost all lives lost due to malaria could have been saved if the access to the effective medicines would have been cheaper. “Today's announcement is an important step forward in global efforts to increase access to affordable and effective malaria treatment. I applaud the commitments of these companies to lower volatility in this market and offer low and sustainable prices that will save more lives,” he added further.