False social media alarm: Antimalarial drugs removed from EU market

The Pharmacy, Medicines and Poisons Board would like to assure the general public that information circulating on social media purporting that certain antimalarial drugs have been withdrawn from the European Union Market for causing kidney failure is false and should be disregarded.

In Malawi, the use of single active ingredient (monotherapy) antimalarial products such as those listed in the social media post was phased out in December 2007 following change of policy by the Ministry of Health to adopt Artemisinin based combination therapies (ACTs) for the treatment of Malaria. It is worth noting that the change of policy was not due to kidney failure but rather to avoid development of antimicrobial resistance to monotherapy antimalarial drugs.