THE HAGUE, 04/11/06 - Development Cooperation Minister Agnes van Ardenne will invest around 80 million euros in the next four years in development of new drugs for poor countries. The investment covers drugs for malaria (20 million euros), tuberculosis (30 million) and AIDS (30 million).

Over 250 million people in Africa have malaria every year and a child aged under 5 dies of this disease every 30 seconds, because existing medicines no longer work, according to Van Ardenne. "The Dutch contribution will make it possible to have a new malaria medicine available for African countries within three years," she announced Friday.

For tuberculosis, the programme is intended to result within three years in a change to shorter treatment with a single drug. This now takes at least six months with more than one medicine. For AIDS, the minister hopes women in Africa to have "a microbicide that they themselves can insert" within five years.

The minister envisages partnership with companies, research institutes and other partners. The investment means the Netherlands is now in an absolute sense the biggest financier of drugs development for tuberculosis and the third-biggest for malaria, after the US and the UK.