Innovative plans to subsidise malaria drugs to make them more affordable for the poor will be counter-productive and should be abandoned, the outgoing head of the world’s largest multilateral funder of projects to fight infectious disease has warned.

Sir Richard Feachem, who stepped down from the Global Fund to fight Aids, TB and Malaria last month, said a “high-level” malaria subsidy under development with World Bank support risked failing to reach those for whom it was intended and even worsening the incidence of malaria. He said it would undermine pharmaceutical innovation and distract political commitment.