India

Ranbaxy Community Health Care Society

Ranbaxy set up the Ranbaxy Community Health Care Society (RCHS) in 1994 as a professionally managed independent, nonprofit body. RCHS grew out of the work of the Ranbaxy Rural Development Trust, created by the company in 1979 to deliver primary health care to the underserved and underprivileged in Indian society and contribute to the national objective 'Health For All'. RCHS adopts a focused, integrated approach to basic health care issues its service areas.

Piramal: Helpyourbody Chronic Disease Campaign

India is the chronic disease capital of the world. The number of diabetics in the country is expected to rise from 40 million today to 70 million by 2025. In the same period, hypertensive cases are expected to rise from 118 million to 213.5 million, and cases of osteoarthritis from 15 million to 60 million. Genetic causes, obesity, stress, inappropriate dietary habits and a lack of exercise predispose India to such chronic ailments in a relatively young population.

Pfizer Global Health Fellows

The Pfizer Global Health Fellows program utilizes the professional expertise of Pfizer employees through specialized volunteer assignments with nonprofit organizations to improve health care services for underserved communities around the world. Since 2003, more than 230 employees with a range of technical skills have served in 39 nations for 3-6 month assignments investing nearly 200,000 hours of skills-based service to help increase the capacity of nonprofits organizations providing health care to the underserved (in the reporting period, 54 Global Health Fellows were deployed).

Pediatric Formulations for ARVs

Of the 2.5 million HIV-positive children in the world in 2007, nearly 90 per cent were in sub-Saharan Africa, according to UNAIDS.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative

Although a large percentage of tuberculosis cases worldwide remain susceptible to current TB antibiotics, drug-resistant TB is a major and growing threat. Created in June 2007, the Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative's major goal is to fill the early stage pipeline. The primary members are Eli Lilly and Company, the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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