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Praziquantel Donation Program

Merck KGaA’s Praziquantel Donation Program, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), aims to fight schistosomiasis in Africa. Schistosomiasis is a parasitic worm disease that is the second most prevalent and devastating parasitic disease in tropical countries after malaria. Infection occurs when human skin comes into contact with fresh water contaminated by snails carrying the schistosome parasites, which migrate through the body and spread the infectious disease. It represents the 2nd most severe burden for African children after malaria, and is considered as one of the most neglected tropical diseases. The consequences of an infection are particularly serious for children, as schistosomiasis stunts growth and cognitive development and also lead to anemia. WHO reports more than 200 million infected people in Americas, Africa, the Middle East, Southeast and the Western Pacific.

ViiV Healthcare Access to ARVs

In the Least Developed Countries and sub-Saharan Africa GlaxoSmithKline has offered its HIV/AIDS medicines at not-for-profit (nfp) prices since 2001. ViiV Healthcare will maintain this commitment, and will include the additional products in its portfolio. All of ViiV Healthcare's ARVs are now available at not-for-profit prices to public sector customers and not-for-profit organizations in all Least Developed Countries and all of sub-Saharan Africa - 64 countries in total.

Tibotec Cost Recovery Distribution Program

Johnson & Johnson's Tibotec subsidiary collaborates with major not-for-profit suppliers to donate and sell Tibozole TM Miconazole MAT to treat oral thrush in AIDS patients in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Technology Transfer & ARV Licensing in Developing Countries

Pharmaceutical companies' preferential pricing of antiretrovirals make effective, safe, high quality HIV/AIDS treatments available to developing countries. In some cases, companies also issue voluntary licenses (VLs) which allow local manufacturers in developing countries to produce and sell generic versions of their products. VLs are not a universal solution to HIV/AIDS but a response to specific circumstances. Local factors encouraging VL use include a severe HIV/AIDS epidemic, adequate health care infrastructure, suitable economic conditions and sufficient manufacturing expertise.

Stop TB Partnership

Established in 1998 and hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Stop TB Partnership aims to provide global leadership, strategy, and coordinating mechanisms. The Stop TB priorities are to expand, adapt, and improve strategies to control and eliminate TB in support of the World Health Assembly Targets set by 2005 (70% case-detection and 85% cure-rates) and the Millennium Development Goals. The mission is to ensure that every TB patient has access to TB treatment and cure, to protect vulnerable populations from TB and to reduce the social and economic toll that TB exerts on families, communities and nations.

Single Tablet per Day: Atripla Fixed-Dose Combination

Combinations of different ARVs are used to treat people living with HIV/AIDS to reduce the risk of them developing resistance. Atripla - the first once-daily single tablet regimen for the treatment of HIV infection in adults - is a fixed-dose combination of the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) efavirenz, and the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate. Efavirenz is marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb as Sustiva and by Merck & Co., Inc. as Stocrin.

Sikiliza Leo Project, Uganda

Johnson & Johnson, its Tibotec subsidiary and the African Medical Research Foundation help the Ugandan NGO Sikiliza Leo to provide HIV testing, counseling, treatment and care in rural Uganda. Since March 2003, HIV testing and counseling have been offered to 3,586 community members, of whom 559 have tested positive for HIV. A total of 272 persons receive Home Based Care and a first group of 20 are now receiving ARV therapy.

Sigma-Tau & AMREF: 'Uganda Project'

Sigma-Tau supports the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) in implementing the 'Uganda Project', a vaccination and medical training program in Northern Uganda, in the areas most affected by the civil war of the 1990s. The main aim of the project is to vaccinate more than 3,000 Ugandan children against the six most common childhood diseases (tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, hepatitis B and measles). At the same time, it also aims to provide medical training for local health workers, thus furnishing both immediate and long-term support for health development.

Sanofi-aventis: Mental Health Disorders (Schizophrenia)

Sanofi-aventis, one of the major actors in the central nervous system therapeutic field in the developed world, is developing new programs to help provide better care for schizophrenia - one of the most severe mental disorders - in developing countries. There, these psychotic patients not only suffer from the disabling and potentially life-threatening symptoms of their illness, but they are also victims of ignorance, discrimination and social stigma.

Sanofi-aventis: Impact Malaria

The Impact Malaria program embodies sanofi-aventis' longstanding commitment to fight malaria. Sanofi-aventis is researching new treatments that are affordable, adapted to patients' needs, especially children, and can help circumvent growing resistance to existing medicines. The most advanced projects are ferroquine for uncomplicated malaria, developed with Lille University and 'bicationic compounds' for severe malaria with Montpellier University, both in Phase II clinical trials. Upstream projects include development of 'trioxaquins' with Palumed in Toulouse.

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