Research-based Pharmaceutical Industry's Health Contribution Presented To Special United Nations Session On Health In Africa And Other Countries

Main Category: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 09 Jul 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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The IFPMA was invited to attend a special session of the United Nations (UN) in Geneva on health in Africa and other least developed countries, organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission (ECOSOC). Michael D. Boyd, Acting Director General of the IFPMA, gave a briefing on the research-based pharmaceutical industry's contribution to improving health in the developing world, speaking to an audience which included foreign ministers of UN Member States and senior UN officials.

Mr. Boyd commented: "A quiet transformation has been going on over the last decade or so, strengthening links between the developed world and least developed countries, especially in the area of health. As a single industry sector, the IFPMA's member companies have made an unprecedented contribution to improving health in the countries which have the greatest needs."

Since the inception of the UN Millennium Development Goals, through to the end of 2007, IFPMA member companies made available enough medical assistance to reach nearly 2 billion people in low and middle income countries - assistance conservatively valued at USD 9.2 billion(1). The growing range of industry-backed partnership programs to help improve health in developing countries is documented in an annual IFPMA partnerships book(2) and in a searchable online database, at http://www.ifpma.org/healthpartnerships.

The research-based pharmaceutical industry has also been steadily increasing its R&D into diseases of the developing world. In 2005, IFPMA Member Companies were working on 32 new medicine projects for the top 10 diseases of the developing world; this year, they are working on 75 such projects(3) . The research-based pharmaceutical industry's commitment to help develop new medicines for the developing world is underlined by the existence of five company R&D centers which are dedicated purely to research into diseases which disproportionately affect developing countries(4).

(1) See here.

(2) Partnerships to Build Healthier Societies in the Developing World - May 2009. See here.

(3) See here.

(4) Industry Dedicated DDW R&D Centers:

- AstraZeneca, Bangalore Research Institute, India (Tuberculosis)
- GlaxoSmithKline, DDW Drug Discovery Center, Tres Cantos, Spain (Malaria, Tuberculosis, Kinetoplastids)
- Lilly (+ Merck & Co., Inc.), Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative, Seattle, USA, (Tuberculosis)
- Novartis, Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases, Singapore (Dengue Fever, Malaria, Tuberculosis)
- Novartis, Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health, Siena, Italy (Diarrheal diseases, Salmonella).

Source
IFPMA