Uniting to combat neglected tropical diseases: public-private partnership

Today, 13 pharmaceutical companies, the U.S., U.K. and U.A.E governments, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank and other global health organisations announced a new, coordinated push to accelerate progress toward eliminating or controlling 10 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by the end of the decade.

Uniting efforts with NTD-endemic countries, partners pledged to bring a unique focus to defeating these diseases and to work together to improve the lives of the 1.4 billion people worldwide affected by NTDs, most of whom are among the world’s poorest.

• Additional media and other resources
• Endorse the London Declaration on NTDs

International treaty signed to combat growing counterfeit drug industry

According to a report by The Moscow Times, many European leaders have recently agreed to cooperate in the fight against counterfeit medicines:

Convention to Combat Fake Medicine Signed

(Moscow Times)  Russia, France, Germany and several other mostly European countries on Friday signed the first-ever international treaty to combat the growing multibillion-dollar counterfeit drugs industry.

The Council of Europe-sponsored Medicrime Convention, signed in Moscow, obliges signatory states to criminalize a broad range of activities that make possible the sale of fake medicines that harm patients and deprive legal producers of revenues.  The convention introduces minimum standards for the criminal law of the signatory countries, said Council of Europe media officer Estelle Steiner.

Ambassadors and diplomats of Austria, Finland, Italy, Israel, Iceland, Portugal, Switzerland and Ukraine have signed the treaty. It establishes as criminal offenses such activities as the manufacturing of counterfeit medical products (including equipment), their supply and offers to supply, trafficking and the falsification of related documents.

Many fake drugs contain an insufficient amount of active ingredients, which could cause fatal consequences for the patient.

According to the World Health Organization, counterfeit medical products represent between 6 percent and 20 percent of the market in some parts of Europe.

 

GSK malaria vaccine could save millions of lives

The following report published in The Guardian today provides encouraging global health news — GSK’s new vaccine against malaria has been shown to halve the risk of malaria.

Malaria vaccine could save millions of children’s lives

Millions of small children’s lives could be saved by a new vaccine that has been shown to halve the risk of malaria in the first large-scale trials across seven African countries.

The long-awaited results of the largest-ever malaria vaccine study, involving 15,460 babies and small children, show that it could massively reduce the impact of the much-feared killer disease. Malaria takes nearly 800,000 lives every year – most of them children under five. It damages many more.

The vaccine has been in development for two decades – the brainchild of scientists at the UK drug company GlaxoSmithKline, which has promised to sell it at no more than a fraction over cost-price, with the excess being ploughed back into further tropical disease research.

Global pharmaceutical industry contributes action plan and research to fighting NCDs in the developing world

Coinciding with the UN High-Level meeting on non-communicable diseases, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers released the following statement outlining steps they’re taking to address the growing global challenge of NCDs.

To coincide with the United Nations High-Level Meeting on NCDs, the research-based pharmaceutical industry today outlined the steps it is taking to address the rise of NCDs in the developing world. Building on its Framework for Action released earlier this year, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) revealed the findings of the first report of an independent policy research programme focused on identifying the most significant obstacles to stemming the tide of NCDs in developing countries.

The fight against TB: Bayer donates drugs to WHO program

According to a report from PharmaTimes, Bayer will donate 620,000 tablets of its antibiotic moxifloxacin in order to help tackle multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.

The drugs will be provided to the World Health Organization for use in its Stop Tuberculosis Partnership, with the WHO expected to provide the antibiotics to China’s national tuberculosis programme.

Milestone reached in Measles vaccination

The United Nations Foundation reported today that one billion children in more than 60 developing countries have been immunized against measles since 2001 — the start of the Measles Initiative.

In 1980, before widespread vaccination, measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year. With accelerated immunization activities spearheaded by governments and the Measles Initiative, global measles mortality has decreased by an impressive 78 percent worldwide from 733,000 deaths in 2000 to 164,000 in 2008. Reductions in measles-related deaths during that same time period accounts for nearly a quarter (24 percent) of the overall decrease in childhood mortality, representing significant progress toward Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG4).

 

UN protects millions of children in DR Congo with anti-measles vaccination

Some 3.1 million children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been vaccinated against measles in a United Nations-coordinated campaign to combat the disease outbreak which has claimed the lives of 1,145 children since the start of this year.

The measles epidemic affected a total of 115,600 children between January and June, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a press release issued yesterday, adding that the vaccination campaign was funded with $1.9 million.

The campaign, which kicked off on 10 May, was coordinated by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) in the provinces of Katanga, Kasai Occidental, Bas-Congo, Equateur and Orientale.  “The funding – equivalent to 61 cents per child – helped protect the health of millions of children,” said Fidèle Sarassoro, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for DRC.

Measles is a highly contagious viral disease, which mostly affects children. It is transmitted through droplets from the nose, mouth or throat of infected persons. Initial symptoms, which usually appear between eight to 12 days after infection, include high fever, a running nose, bloodshot eyes, and tiny white spots on the inside of the mouth. A rash then develops, starting on the face and upper neck and gradually spreading to the rest of the body.

In malnourished children and people with reduced immunity, the disease can cause serious complications, including blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhoea, ear infection, pneumonia and even death.

Source – UN Daily News

Dengue – new site highlights disease information and research

Population growth, urbanization and rapid mass transportation have resulted in an explosive increase in dengue cases – from 1.2 million in 1998 to as many as 500 million annual cases today – and contributed to an ever growing number of countries and people at risk of infection. Dengue is now endemic in over 100 countries across the globe, and is the most prevalent mosquito-borne viral disease.

The Dengue Vaccine Initiative just launched a new site to provide a central resource for information about the disease, vaccines and other efforts.

Substantial progress towards finding a vaccine has been made in the last decade. Several vaccines are in various stages of advanced development, with clinical trials currently underway on five candidate vaccines. Trials in the most advanced stages are showing encouraging preliminary data.

Dengue is a major cause of morbidity and mortality and a leading cause of hospitalization of children in many countries in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. The greatest documented burden of dengue occurs in Asia and Latin America, but the disease is now appearing in previously unaffected areas. The cost of illness to society is considerable, from lost wages and decreased productivity to costs associated with seeking care and direct medical expenses. An estimated 60% of the economic strain caused by dengue is a result of indirect costs. The cost of dengue in the Western Hemisphere alone is estimated at $2.1 billion per year.

 

IFPMA launches NCD Framework for Action

IFPMA (International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations) recently released a NCD Framework for Action, highlighting specific areas of action including:  innovation, access and affordability, prevention and health education.  The document underscores the essential role of partnerships in addressing the challenge of non-communicable disease.

Read more about the NCD Framework for Action:

PharmaTimes – IFPMA pledges action on non-communicable diseases

IFPMA – Research-based pharmaceutical industry launches collaborative framework to tackle NCDs

UN releases 2011 report on MDGs

Today, the UN released The Millennium Development Goals Report 2011, highlighting progress and key areas for improvement as we get closer to the 2015 deadline.

Some of the areas of progress cited were:

• The number of deaths of children under the age of five declined from 12.4 million in 1990 to 8.1 million in 2009, which means nearly 12,000 fewer children die each day.
• Increased funding and intensive control efforts have cut deaths from malaria by 20 per cent worldwide – from nearly 985,000 in 2000 to 781,000 in 2009.
• New HIV infections have declined steadily. In 2009, some 2.6 million people were newly infected with HIV – a 21 per cent drop since 1997, when new infections peaked.
• The number of people receiving antiretroviral therapy for HIV or AIDS increased 13-fold from 2004 to 2009, thanks to increased funding and expanded programs.