Corinne Carland, Erin Reissman
Partner: Malaria Consortium, USAID
Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are an important tool to combat malaria in resource-constrained settings. They offer a fast and accurate diagnosis of the disease and do not rely on lab equipment or specially trained personnel. Rapid, accurate diagnosis for malaria is important in order to ensure early and effective treatment, to facilitate public health surveillance, and to prevent drug resistance. However, RDTs are not widely available in private sector outlets where individuals seek malaria treatment. The project explores how agents in these supply chains—including manufacturers, first-line buyers, distributors, and retailers—make complex business decisions about buying, carrying, and selling products. This includes understanding the important decision criteria the tradeoff between them. The goal is to understand what factors are important to the private sector in “willingness to stock” in order to scale up availability of malaria rapid diagnostic tests.