Novartis delivers 250,000,000th Coartem treatment

Novartis becomes first healthcare company to join United Against Malaria partnership

07-Jul-2009 - Tanzania

Novartis announced the delivery of the 250,000,000th treatment of Coartem, a artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) for the treatment of malaria. To mark this occasion, Dr. Daniel Vasella, Chairman and CEO of Novartis, delivered the milestone dose to Mwananyamala District Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Reinforcing Novartis' long-term commitment to patients in the developing world, Dr. Vasella also announced that Novartis is the first healthcare company to join United Against Malaria (UAM), a consortium that strives to raise awareness of malaria and achieve the shared goal of ending malaria deaths in Africa by 2015.

Preventable and curable, malaria remains a devastating disease infecting more than 250 million people each year and causing an estimated 880,000 deaths. Its toll is heaviest among young children in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is estimated that a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds.

"With 250 million treatments provided and an estimated 630,000 lives saved, the Novartis Malaria Initiative is the industry's largest access-to-medicines program in the developing world," said Dr. Vasella. "However, malaria demands a collaborative approach. Joining United Against Malaria in its campaign is a promising way to relieve unnecessary suffering due to malaria."

Novartis is the first healthcare company to join UAM, whose founding partners include Comic Relief, Johns Hopkins University, Malaria No More, the ONE Campaign, PATH, Population Services International, Roll Back Malaria and the United Nations Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

https://www.bionity.com/en/news/102970/novartis-delivers-250-000-000th-coartem-treatment.html