South Africa

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.

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.

In 2009, with support from The Merck Company Foundation, the Earth Institute at Columbia University launched a community health worker training program to strengthen community health services for over 400,000 people in 10 African countries as part of the Millennium Villages project. The initiative aims to develop a professional cadre of 800 community health workers to fill a critical gap in primary healthcare provision for rural communities throughout Africa.

In 1990, the company built the Johnson & Johnson Burn Treatment Centre at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, South Africa. The JJBTC has 24 beds for adults and 26 beds for children, an operating room, and multi-disciplinary facilities and treats about 1,500 people a year. This state-of-the-art unit treats more than 1,500 patients annually for serious and complicated burns, and has succeeded in reducing the mortality rate among critically ill patients.