Bangkok--16 Mar--Total Quality PR
The research-based pharmaceutical industry recently announced donations of US$ 14 billion treatments this decade to support the elimination or control of nine key neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and improve patient health worldwide. This announcement comes in conjunction with an NTD collaboration comprised of pharmaceutical companies, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank, the US and UK governments, international organizations, and endemic countries’ national governments.
At least one billion people worldwide — one person in seven — suffer from NTDs such as human African trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease, lymphatic filariasis, soil-transmitted helminths, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, leprosy, fascioliasis, or blinding trachoma. Each year NTDs disproportionately kill millions of poor people primarily in tropical and subtropical areas.
These donations follow a World Health Organisation (WHO) announcement of new NTD targets to be achieved by 2020. WHO highlighted nine NTDs whose elimination or control is achievable with adequate supply and distribution of the relevant medicines. For maximum impact, these donations focus on those nine NTDs that represent more than 90 percent of the global NTD burden.
In addition to medicine donations, the research-based pharmaceutical industry supports the fight against NTDs with capacity-building efforts in developing countries and medical innovation and was the second largest funder of research and development for neglected diseases in 2010, reaching more than US$ 500 million.
For media information, please contact
Total Quality PR (TQPR) Thailand Co. Ltd.,
Maetavarin Maneekulpan
Tel: 02-260-5820 ext. 115
E-mail:
[email protected]