Efforts on to finally eliminate leprosy

BASEL — Novartis will continue its work with the World Health Organization (WHO) toward a world free of leprosy by extending its drug donation of multidrug therapy (MDT) medicine to treat leprosy through the year 2020.

This new five-year commitment includes treatments worth an estimated $22.5 million and up to $2.5 million to support WHO in handling the donation and logistics, and is expected to reach an estimated 850,000 patients.

“Since 2000, we have worked with WHO to provide free treatment to leprosy patients globally, but we know that no single actor — no matter how committed to patients — can eliminate this debilitating disease alone,” said Joseph Jimenez, CEO of Novartis.

“We are proud to work with governments, international agencies, non-governmental organizations and the private sector to ensure that patients receive the treatment they need. Only with effective and coordinated action by all parties involved can we achieve our common goal of making leprosy history,” Jimenez added.

Novartis and the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development (NFSD) have a long-term commitment to leprosy treatment and control.

Prior to the announcement, Novartis had donated more than 48 million MDT blister packs valued at approximately $77 million through the WHO, helping to cure over five million leprosy patients worldwide.

The NFSD has been active in the fight against leprosy for more than 25 years, through implementing innovative social marketing programs to reduce the stigma attached to leprosy, developing tools to prevent disabilities, helping patients reintegrate in society, and supporting the leprosy drug donation.

Since 1986, the NFSD has provided over CHF 30 million for these programs.

Donating drugs alone, however, is not enough, and the NFSD is committed to intensify efforts to build a multi-stakeholder initiative in a final push against leprosy.

Last Jan. 25, the NFSD, in cooperation with the Department of Health, held the first Leprosy Stakeholders Symposium in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan.

The groundbreaking symposium gathered all major stakeholders and partners from both government and private sector with the goal of eliminating leprosy in areas of the Philippines where the disease is still endemic.

The extension of the Novartis leprosy commitment is a key part of a new, coordinated push by a diverse range of public and private collaborators to combat 10 Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) by 2020.

Today, 13 pharmaceutical companies, the United States and United Kingdom governments, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank and officials from NTD-endemic countries pledged to bring a unique focus to defeating these diseases and to work together to improve the lives of the billion people worldwide affected by NTDs.

In the largest coordinated effort to date to combat NTDs, the group announced at an event at the Royal College of Physicians in London that they would sustain or expand existing drug donation programs to meet demand through 2020; share expertise and compounds to accelerate research and development of new drugs; and provide funding to support R&D efforts and strengthen drug distribution and implementation programs. 

The collaborators also signed the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases, in which they pledged new levels of collaboration and tracking and reporting of progress.

This announcement is part of the company’s long commitment to enhancing access to health care in the developing world.

Novartis works to discover vaccines and medicine for neglected diseases through two research institutes: the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD) in Singapore and the Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health (NVGH) in Italy.

The Novartis Malaria Initiative is one of the health care industry’s largest access-to-medicine programs. Since 2001, Novartis has worked with a range of organizations to ensure effective delivery of our anti-malarial medicine, providing more than 480 million treatments without profit.

In 2011, Novartis’ access-to-medicine programs reached more than 89 million patients and together with its research institutes for diseases of the developing world, are valued at $1.7 billion, or three percent of net sales.

Since 1985, more than 14 million people worldwide have been cured of leprosy, thanks to MDT, the treatment recommended by the WHO, shrinking the worldwide prevalence by approximately 95 percent.

According to the WHO, in 2010 less than 230,000 new cases were reported, from a total of 130 countries worldwide. Despite these successes, leprosy control remains at a critical juncture and knowledge of the disease is becoming less common. Moving forward, early detection and continued availability of free treatment are essential.

The development of MDT changed the face of leprosy dramatically. MDT consists of three drugs (rifampicin, clofazimine and dapsone), two of which (rifampicin and clofazimine) were developed in the research laboratories of Novartis in the 1980s.

Multidrug therapy has made it possible to cure patients, interrupt the transmission of leprosy and prevent disabilities. Even patients with the severest form of the disease show visible clinical improvement within weeks of starting treatment.