The pricing agreement between the foundation and a consortium of Chinese suppliers of the raw ingredient, Indian producers who turn it into the active ingredient and two Indian generic-drug producers is expected to make malaria drugs available to millions of poor people, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Fluctuations in the price of the artemisia annua plant -- from which the antimalarial drug's ingredient artemisinin is extracted -- has made it harder to get the drugs to poor nations inexpensively. During the past few years, the price of the key ingredient has been as little as $350 a pound to as much as $2,200, Chinese producers told the Journal.

The agreement seeks to limit price fluctuations. Besides the consortium, it caps the price of the raw artemisinin for a guarantee that consortium members will purchase large proportions of their artemisinin from participating suppliers, unless non-members can offer a product of equal quality at a discount, the Journal said. The deal also reduces one drug's price by about 30 percent.