Bayer HealthCare: Fight Against Chagas Disease

In April 2007, Bayer signed a new agreement to provide the World Health Organization (WHO) with 2.5 million Lampit tablets and additional funding for the distribution of the drug. The latest agreement assures the supply of Lampit until 2012. To widen access of patients to affordable medicines, Bayer HealthCare signed agreements with the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2004 and 2005 for donations of its medicine Lampit (nifurtimox) to combat Chagas disease, the form of sleeping sickness found in Latin America. A total of 500,000 tablets was given to the WHO, which informs the governments of disease endemic countries of the availability of the free supplies, including the procedure to be followed for obtaining such supplies, and decides about its distribution. The goal of the WHO is to distribute Lampit in all 21 endemic countries in Latin America. Currently, the medicine is approved in Argentina, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Chile, Guatemala and Uruguay. Lampit will also be provided in small quantities, as needed, in some non-endemic countries, like Canada, France, Japan, Spain, UK and the USA.