Programs

Merck Serono Collaboration with TDR

There is a great need for new medicines for treating tropical disease. Even today, tropical parasitic diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis, African sleeping sickness (HAT) or Chagas disease still represent a major health threat for much of the world's population. They lead to millions of deaths per year and massive socio-economic effects in many countries. New medicines should be focused on the needs of target patients, and be suitable for use in the field. They need to be cost-effective, orally bio-available and stable under extreme conditions of heat and humidity.

Merck Vaccine Network - Africa (MVN-A)

In support of the GAVI Alliance's mission of increasing children's access to vaccines and strengthening delivery systems in the world's poorest countries, the Merck Vaccine Network – Africa (MVN-A) program provides immunization program managers in Africa with hands-on training in vaccine management and immunization services.

Millennium Villages Project

As three out of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are health-related, the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development agreed in 2007 to support the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) in health-related research interventions. The MVP was founded with the goal of helping impoverished communities in rural Africa achieve the MDGs formulated and agreed to by all member countries of the United Nations. The MVP is active at 12 sites in ten African countries. In 2007, the Novartis Foundation started financing one of the six Millennium Villages in Tanzania, the Ilolangulu Village.

Mothers 2 Mothers Mentoring Program

Mothers 2 Mothers (M2M) provides education for South African HIV-positive pregnant women about how to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the disease and later mentor other HIV-positive pregnant women.

Moxifloxacin TB Clinical Trials (Bayer HealthCare)

Bayer HealthCare and the TB Alliance partnered for a global clinical trial program to study the potential of an existing antibiotic, moxifloxacin, to shorten the standard six-month treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis.

MSD-Wellcome Trust Hilleman Laboratories

In September 2009, the Wellcome Trust and Merck & Co., Inc. announced the creation of the MSD Welcome Trust Hilleman Laboratories, a research and development joint venture with a not-for-profit mission to focus on developing affordable vaccines to prevent diseases that commonly affect low-income countries. The joint venture is the first in which a research charity and a pharmaceutical company have jointly created a separate entity with equally shared funding and decision-making rights.

Nawa Sport Program

The Nawa Sport Program is a collaboration between the Academy for Educational Development (AED) and Johnson & Johnson, in partnership with NawaLife Trust. The program uses the large-scale appeal of soccer to inspire young men ages 14 to 25 to get involved in a community activity, which could provide a way to teach them about HIV/AIDS prevention. But the program does more than just teach about HIV/AIDS prevention. It gives all involved a greater sense of accomplishment and involvement within the community.

Next-Generation Onchocerciasis Treatment R&D

Evaluation of moxidectin as a potential next-generation treatment for Onchocerciasis (river blindness).

Nifurtimox-Eflornithine for Sleeping Sickness with TDR

Bayer HealthCare and sanofi-aventis provided financial support for development of new therapies for sleeping sickness (Human African Trypanosomiasis or HAT) through the UNDP-World Bank-WHO Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR). R&D projects supported include an oral form of eflornithine, manufactured by sanofi-aventis, and a combination of eflornithine and nifurtimox - the active ingredient of Lampit, originally used to treat Chagas disease.

Novartis Coartem

Coartem is the first World Health Organization-prequalified fixed-dose, artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) antimalarial, approved by stringent regulatory authorities and on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. Coartem is fast-acting and cures over 97% of patients after a 3-day treatment course. Coartem combines artemether, a derivative of artemisinin (from the Chinese medicinal plant Artemisia annua), with a synthetic substance, lumefantrine, which has not been used as a monotherapy.

Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD)

The Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD) research center focuses exclusively on the discovery of innovative medicines for the treatment of diseases that are endemic to developing countries.

Novartis R&D for Malaria

Novartis is focusing on the development of a one-dose cure for P. falciparum, the most dangerous form of malaria, and a curative modality for P. vivax, the most frequent-occurring and widely distributed type of malaria.

Novartis TB DOTS Donation

Novartis is donating anti-TB medication to treat 500,000 patients in poor countries.

Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health (NVGH)

Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health (NVGH) is a research institute with a nonprofit mission dedicated to the translational research and development of vaccines for diseases of the developing world.

Novo Nordisk: Differential Pricing on Insulin

Among the targets for UN Millennium Development Goal 8 is a call for partnerships with pharmaceutical companies to provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries. Since 2001, Novo Nordisk has offered human insulin to the public health systems in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) at prices which do not to exceed 20% of the average price in Europe, Japan and North America. In 2009, Novo Nordisk offered this pricing scheme to all 49 LDCs, of which 36 used it to buy insulin at or below this price, compared to 32 in 2008.

Novo Nordisk: Haemophilia Foundation

The Novo Nordisk Haemophilia Foundation (NNHF) was created in 2005 to address the significant need to improve haemophilia treatment in developing countries, where it is not a healthcare priority and many patients go undiagnosed or are inadequately treated. Consequently, life expectancy for people with haemophilia is low and treatment with clotting factors is suboptimal. NNHF is an independent trust, located in Zurich, Switzerland, and funds programs to improve hemophilia care, treatment and awareness in the developing world.

Novo Nordisk: World Partner Project

The diabetes pandemic will undoubtedly affect developing countries' ability to grow and develop. The World Partner Project (WPP) was launched in 2001 to establish a foundation on which developing countries can build their own diabetes healthcare strategies and ultimately improve access to proper care. The WPP works with local partners, usually health ministries and/or patient organizations, and is funded by a grant from Novo Nordisk.

Nurse Training in East Africa

Johnson & Johnson supports the Advanced Nursing Studies (ANS) and the Enrolled Nurses to Registered Nurses (ER-RN) programs at the Aga Khan University Health Sciences campus in Nairobi, Kenya. The program provides quality education and greater standards of evidence-based care to nurses and midwives from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, to further develop their professional skills. The training, which includes some distance-learning approaches, prepares nurses to become registered nurses. More than 500 nursing students have benefited from this program.

Nurse Training in Somalia

When the civil war broke out in Somalia in 1990, SOS Children's Villages started a major medical emergency relief and food program. The SOS Hermann Gmeiner School was converted into an emergency clinic where adults and children injured in the war were cared for, and the mother and child clinic became part of the emergency relief program. To date it remains the only functioning maternity ward and gynecological care facility in the country.

Nyumbani Children's Home

Johnson & Johnson supports the Nyumbani Children's Home which covers communities throughout Nairobi. The Children's Home serves as a home to nearly 100 abandoned or orphaned children with HIV/AIDS. The children receive holistic care antiretroviral therapy, psychological, academic and spiritual support.

Otsuka Pharmaceutical: MDR-Tuberculosis R&D

At a preclinical level, Otsuka Pharmaceutical's OPC-67683 has shown particularly strong bactericidal activity on Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The compound has also been confirmed to have no cross resistance with any of the currently used anti-tuberculosis agents and its strong bactericidal effect is seen even on clinically isolated strains of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB).

Pandemic Influenza & Developing Countries

Social factors make poor countries particularly vulnerable to an influenza pandemic and they are less able to afford vaccines and antiviral medicines. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has invested over USD 2 billion in research and expanded production capacity for its antiviral medicine, Relenza, and for its pre-pandemic and pandemic influenza vaccines. It has set a preferential price for Relenza for Least-Developed Countries (LDCs) and has granted Simcere, China, a voluntary licence to make zanamivir and sell it in China, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and all LDCs.

Pankararu Health & Culture Project

Pfizer and Associacio Sao de Sem Limites (Unlimited Health Association) have been working together on The Pankararu Health and Culture Project since 2005. The project provides 5,000 Pankararu Indians in townships located in the Borborema Mountain Range, in the arid interior of Pernambuco State, with basic health care information. Pfizer provides both financial and technical support to the program. The Pankararu population also suffers from long droughts, intense social discrimination, clan conflicts and territorial disputes.

PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI)

MVI works to link government, industry, and academia partners with field trial sites in malaria endemic countries as early as feasible in the development process.

Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative (PDVI)

Dengue fever is the second most widespread tropical disease after malaria. The Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative (PDVI), a Bill and Melinda Gates funded initiative of the International Vaccine Institute, in Seoul, Korea, was established in 2001 to accelerate the development of a dengue vaccine that is appropriate, safe and accessible to poor children in endemic countries.

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