Merck Donates $300,000 to Support Neglected Tropical Disease Elimination Efforts in Africa
April 20 2017 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada,
announced today a $300,000 cash donation to support
non-governmental organization (NGO) partners working to eliminate
river blindness (onchocerciasis) and lymphatic filariasis (LF) in
Africa. The donation will be offered to 10 NGOs beginning this
year, and will be administered through the MECTIZAN® Donation
Program (MDP), a public/private partnership established in 1987
following the announcement by Merck to donate MECTIZAN® to control
and eliminate river blindness.
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River blindness and LF are targeted for elimination in the World
Health Organization’s (WHO) Roadmap on Neglected Tropical Diseases
(NTDs), and NGOs have long played a critical role in the broad
partnership focused on achieving those targets. Grants will be
given to support activities focused on the elimination of river
blindness or LF, and will be offered to our partner NGOs who are
directly involved in the distribution of MECTIZAN®. Eligible NGOs
will be able to request funds through an application process in
which they will be required to secure a 50-50 matching grant,
effectively doubling the resources to $600,000.
Through the MDP and its partners -- including endemic countries,
NGOs, the WHO, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the
WHO’s Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO), the WHO’s Regional
Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (WHO EMRO), the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department for
International Development (DFID) and others -- more than 200
million people in 32 countries are reached each year. NGOs play a
critical role in this partnership, facilitating community-led
efforts to distribute MECTIZAN® and educating people about the
diseases. Since the inception of the program in 1987, Merck has
donated more than 2.5 billion treatments for river blindness and
LF.
"Since the MECTIZAN® Donation Program began 30 years ago, Merck
and its global partners have made great strides to control and
eliminate river blindness and lymphatic filariasis. With both
diseases now targeted for elimination, we hope this grant will
enable our partner NGOs to achieve further progress toward that
goal,” said Brenda Colatrella, executive director, corporate
responsibility. The MDP's impact extends beyond its immediate
health benefits. The program has been a catalyst in the formation
of similar donation programs for other NTDs. Initially focused only
on river blindness, in 1998, Merck expanded the MDP to include
MECTIZAN® for the prevention of LF in African countries where the
disease coexists with river blindness. Further, the broad
public-private partnership supports the training of community
health care workers and strengthening distribution systems through
which other medicines, vaccines and medical supplies can be
delivered in resource-poor settings.
About Merck
For more than a century, Merck, a leading global
biopharmaceutical company known as MSD outside of the United States
and Canada, has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines
and vaccines for many of the world’s most challenging diseases.
Through our prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies
and animal health products, we work with customers and operate in
more than 140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions. We
also demonstrate our commitment to increasing access to health care
through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. Today,
Merck continues to be at the forefront of research to advance the
prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and
communities around the world - including cancer, cardio-metabolic
diseases, emerging animal diseases, Alzheimer’s disease and
infectious diseases including HIV and Ebola. For more information,
visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram.
About the MECTIZAN® Donation Program
The MECTIZAN® Donation Program (MDP) was established at the Task
Force for Global Health in 1987 to provide medical, technical and
administrative oversight of the donation of MECTIZAN® by Merck for
the treatment of onchocerciasis. In 1998, MDP expanded its mandate
to include oversight of the donation of albendazole by GSK to be
distributed in conjunction with MECTIZAN® for the elimination of
lymphatic filariasis in onchocerciasis co-endemic areas.
Forward-Looking Statement of Merck & Co., Inc.,
Kenilworth, N.J., USA
This news release of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J.,
USA (the “company”) includes “forward-looking statements” within
the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are
based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company’s
management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties.
If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or
uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially
from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.
Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general
industry conditions and competition; general economic factors,
including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations;
the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care
legislation in the United States and internationally; global trends
toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new
products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent
in new product development, including obtaining regulatory
approval; the company’s ability to accurately predict future market
conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial
instability of international economies and sovereign risk;
dependence on the effectiveness of the company’s patents and other
protections for innovative products; and the exposure to
litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory
actions.
The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any
forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause
results to differ materially from those described in the
forward-looking statements can be found in the company’s 2016
Annual Report on Form 10-K and the company’s other filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC’s
Internet site (www.sec.gov).
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170420005663/en/
Merck:Claire Gillespie, 267-305-0932Jeanine Clemente,
908-740-6268orMDP:Joni Lawrence, 404-687-5610Yao Sodahlon,
404-371-1460
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