From: News Release – African Press Organization
· Good results in Zanzibar thanks to drug donation from the German pharmaceutical, chemical and life science company
· Five compact laboratories for detecting counterfeit medicines presented
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, February 27, 2012/ — The German pharmaceutical, chemical and life science company Merck (http://www.merckgroup.com) plans to intensify its efforts to combat the tropical disease schistosomiasis in Tanzania. Dr. Karl-Ludwig Kley, Chairman of the Merck Executive Board, announced the plans on Tuesday during a press conference in Dar es Salaam also attended by Dr. Hadji Hussein Mponda, Tanzania’s Minister for Health and Social Welfare. At this event, five mobile compact laboratories for detecting inferior and counterfeit medicines were presented to the Tanzanian Health Minister. The Global Pharma Health Fund (GPHF), a charitable initiative funded by Merck, donated these so-called Minilabs for deployment in Tanzania.
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“We have committed to continuing our efforts in Africa, in cooperation with WHO, until schistosomiasis is eliminated,” Kley said. “To date, we have provided WHO annually with up to 25 million tablets containing the active ingredient praziquantel, free of charge. In the medium term, we will increase that number tenfold to 250 million per year. Tanzania will also benefit from this. Together with WHO and further partners, we will clarify how this assistance can be most effectively realized in Tanzania.” According to WHO, the therapy is considered the most effective treatment in the fight against the parasitic worm disease.
Dr. Hadji Hussein Mponda, Tanzania’s Minister for Health and Social Welfare, welcomed the commitment of the German company: “After malaria, schistosomiasis is considered the most prevalent tropical disease in Africa. The worm disease is also widespread among children in all regions of Tanzania. We are therefore grateful for every sustained initiative that supports us in fighting schistosomiasis. Merck’s commitment not only helps children who are ill – it also relieves our public health care system. Patients who go without treatment often suffer serious health consequences that cause unnecessary suffering and high costs.”
The Merck Praziquantel Donation Program, in partnership with WHO, started in 2007 and it currently covers 11 countries in Africa. During the past three years, the donation program has been successfully implemented in the main islands of Zanzibar where 1.1 million praziquantel tablets have been used to treat more than 447,000 children. Over the coming months another 4.1 million donated tablets will be distributed, further extending treatment for women and children in the islands.
During an excursion to a school in Pemba on February 28, Kley will see first-hand the progress being made in the fight against schistosomiasis in Zanzibar. He will be accompanied by Dr. Sira Mamboya, Deputy Health Minister of Zanzibar, and he will learn how the distribution of praziquantel tablets to children is organized, carried out and documented.
Aside from the tenfold increase in the donation of tablets, Merck has announced an expansion of research into tropical diseases. Merck will develop a new formulation for praziquantel, for instance, which can be given to small children as well. Until now, praziquantel tablets have only been suitable for children aged five years and older
Merck also supports an awareness program for African schools. Posters and age-appropriate brochures are now being used as educational materials for schoolchildren. In a picture story, children learn about the symptoms of the illness and about how they can protect themselves from the worm disease.
It is estimated that more than 200 million people are infected and that around 200,000 die from schistosomiasis each year. The chronic, parasitic disease is transmitted by trematodes. It is particularly widespread in tropical and subtropical regions where poor people have no access to clean water and adequate sanitary facilities. People become infected with the disease by worm larvae mainly in freshwater, for example while swimming, fishing or washing their clothes. The miniscule larvae penetrate human skin, enter the blood vessels and attack internal organs.
Praziquantel is the only active ingredient with which all forms of schistosomiasis can be treated. It is therefore on the WHO list of essential drugs. The tablets, which carry the brand name Cesol® 600, are currently produced at a Merck site in Mexico.
The Merck Praziquantel Donation Program was launched in 2007 in partnership with WHO. Merck provides the tablets to WHO and pays the cost of the logistics required to transport them to Africa. WHO manages, monitors and documents the distribution of the medicine. To date, a total of about 80 million tablets have been distributed and around 19 million children have been treated.
The sharp increase of the number of tablets to 250 million will enable the treatment of around 100 million children per year. The financial commitment for the expanded Merck Praziquantel Donation Program amounts to roughly $ 23 million (about 37 billion Tanzanian shillings) annually.
Five mobile compact labs to detect counterfeit medicines
To help improve health care in Tanzania, five so-called Minialbs, with which inferior and counterfeit medicines can be detected, were presented to the Tanzanian Health Minister Mponda. The Global Pharma Health Fund donated the labs for deployment in Tanzania.
“Counterfeit medicines are a serious threat to health care. With the Minilabs, we are directly protecting people from what can be a deadly risk,” said Kley. “In addition, we are helping to improve the structures for drug monitoring and ensuring that scarce resources are not wasted on worthless, and even hazardous, medicines.” Health Minister Mponda expressed his thanks for the donation and said, “The mobile compact laboratories are globally unique for their ability to detect counterfeits quickly, cost-efficiently and reliably. With them, we can relieve bottlenecks in quality control for medicines, especially in rural areas.”
The International Police Organization Interpol estimates that up to 30% of all medicines in Africa are either counterfeit or of inferior quality. The Global Pharma Health Fund provides help in this context. The Minilab developed by GPHF consists of two portable and tropic-resistant suitcases that contain the means to detect inferior or ineffective medicines. It offers quick, simple and low-cost test methods to check medicines for external abnormalities, identity and content, and identifies 57 active pharmaceutical ingredients, particularly those in medicines commonly used against infectious diseases. The test methods include those for common antibiotics, anthelmintics, virustatics, anti-malarial medicines, tuberculostatics, and other medicines.
Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of Merck.
More information on the fight against schistosomiasis can be found on the Merck website:
http://www.merckgroup.com/en/responsibility/society/global_responsibility_projects/praziquantel.html
More information about the Minilab is available at:
http://www.merckgroup.com/en/responsibility/society/global_responsibility_projects/fighting_counterfeit_medicines.html
http://www.gphf.org/web/en/start/index.htm
Media contact:
Phyllis Carter
Tel. +49 6151 72-7144
media.relations@merckgroup.com
Background Information
Praziquantel
To date, the active ingredient praziquantel represents the most effective weapon in the treatment of the infectious disease schistosomiasis. Praziquantel is well tolerated and the most effective therapy to date for schistosomiasis. It is therefore on the WHO list of essential drugs. Co-developed more than 30 years ago by Merck KGaA and Bayer, this active ingredient was the main component of a drug first introduced to the general public by both companies under the brand name Biltricide in 1980.
At that time, this drug was celebrated by the media as the world’s greatest advance in recent years in the field of tropical medicine and as a major contribution by the research-based German pharmaceutical industry to finding a solution to pressing health issues in developing countries. Until then, there was no effective drug for schistosomiasis on the market yet.
The breakthrough came when researchers at Merck and Bayer developed one out of a total of 400 different compounds that triggers the elimination of all parasites after just one single dose and also showed a very high safety profile: praziquantel. This active ingredient is effective against schistosoma, which causes schistosomiasis, and is also effective against tapeworm infections. Praziquantel differs not only in its more reliable efficacy from known schistosomiasis drugs but also in its high tolerability. The active ingredient causes neither deformations nor hereditary defects and there are no indications of carcinogenic properties.
Praziquantel is administered orally. Depending on liver and kidney functions, praziquantel’s half-life amounts to 1.5 to 2.5 hours. Depending on the parasite species and its localization, the drug is administered in different application durations and rates. Praziquantel is effective not only against distoma causing schistosomiasis and related parasites, but also against tapeworms. With some tapeworms, a single-dose treatment with a low dose (10–25 mg per kg bodyweight) is sufficient, but when inner organs or even the central nervous system are affected by pork tapeworm larvae, treatment requires one to two weeks at maximum dose levels of 50 mg per kg bodyweight.
About Merck
Merck (http://www.merckgroup.com) is a global pharmaceutical and chemical company with total revenues of € 9.3 billion in 2010, a history that began in 1668, and a future shaped by more than 40,000 employees in 67 countries. Its success is characterized by innovations from entrepreneurial employees. Merck’s operating activities come under the umbrella of Merck KGaA, in which the Merck family holds an approximately 70% interest and shareholders own the remaining approximately 30%. In 1917 the U.S. subsidiary Merck & Co. was expropriated and has been an independent company ever since.
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