Drug Discovery and Development

  • Home Drug Discovery and Development
  • Drug Discovery
  • Genomics/Proteomics
  • Oncology
  • Neurological Disease
  • Infectious Disease
  • R&D 100 Awards
  • Pharma 50
    • 2022 Pharma 50
    • 2021 Pharma 50

J & J Donating $200M to UN Program

By Drug Discovery Trends Editor | September 9, 2010

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – Health giant Johnson & Johnson is donating about $200 million in cash and medicine to a sweeping United Nations program created to improve the health and lives of people in poor countries.

J&J is launching a five-year program called “Every Mother, Every Child,” meant to help almost 400 million women and children in developing countries. The maker of No More Tears Baby Shampoo will donate its medicine for treating intestinal worms in children, send pregnant women messages on prenatal health on their cell phones, and work to make childbirth safer. J&J also will continue research on new treatments for the AIDS virus and tuberculosis, both of which disproportionately affect women and children in developing countries.

“It’s a natural extension of our commitment to improve the health of mothers and children everywhere,” Johnson & Johnson CEO Bill Weldon said in prepared remarks. “For several decades, we’ve worked in partnership with dozens of nonprofits and governments in every region of the world to help treat and prevent diseases that place mothers and children at risk.”

The J&J effort addresses part of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. That’s an ambitious international effort, begun in 2000, to bring everyone in the world basic needs and rights, from good health, shelter and education to equality between men and women.

J&J, based in New Brunswick, announced the program Wednesday and was to discuss it during a conference call Thursday with Weldon, UN Assistant Secretary-General Robert Orr and officials of three health projects. The announcement comes just ahead of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals Summit, to be held in New York Sept. 20-22.

The conference, expected to draw more than 150 heads of state and leaders of corporations and nongovernmental organizations, will urge those officials to create global partnerships and speed up progress on reaching those development goals. The meeting also will review progress over the last decade on the goals, which are to be met by 2015.

The goals include bringing every individual freedom from extreme poverty and hunger, productive employment, quality education, good health and shelter and equality between the sexes. Another aim is making environmental sustainability a priority.

Johnson & Johnson’s program is meant to improve life and increase life expectancy for women and children in more than 50 countries. The company said it aims to help up to 120 million women and children each year for the next five years.

The program has four components:

-Mobile Health for Mothers. More than 20 million expectant and new mothers in six developing countries – China, India, Mexico, Bangladesh, South Africa and Nigeria – will get mobile phone messages on prenatal health, reminders of clinical appointments and calls from health mentors. The company noted more than 1.1 billion women in poor and moderate-income countries already own a mobile phone.

-Intestinal Worms in Children. J&J will quadruple its current program, aiming to donate 200 million doses a year of mebendazole, a drug it makes to treat intestinal worms. The company expects to take two years to scale up the program in 30 to 40 countries. It includes education to help prevent reinfection in children after they are treated.

-Safe Birth Programs. Johnson & Johnson will expand its peer education programs for preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV; reducing birth asphyxia, a life-threatening condition caused by a lack of oxygen at birth; and upgrading health facilities to treat more women at risk of fistulas. Those are tissue ruptures, caused by problems in labor, that can trigger infections and incontinence.

-Research and Development Innovations. J&J will continue work on new HIV and tuberculosis treatments. It’s been developing what could be the first tuberculosis drug in 40 years with a new mechanism of action, as well as drugs to treat HIV and potentially prevent its transmission from pregnant women to infants, and new technologies that eventually could prevent HIV transmission between adults.

“These are areas where we see the greatest chance to make a difference in saving lives,” Weldon said.

Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said the intestinal medicine donation will be worth about $40 million to $45 million. The rest of the company’s donation will be in cash for the programs targeting mothers.

The company has not put a value on its HIV and tuberculosis drug research, which has been ongoing for years and could produce medicines that would be lucrative in Western countries.

Date: September 8, 2010
Source: Associated Press


Filed Under: Drug Discovery

 

Related Articles Read More >

Novartis in the Pharma 50
Novartis to cut up to 8,000 positions
Gilead Sciences in the Drug Discovery & Development Pharma 50
Gilead resubmits application to FDA for twice-yearly HIV drug lenacapavir
George Floyd mural
How the pandemic and George Floyd made clinical trial diversity a priority
Portrait photo of Pfizer EVP and Medtronic board member Lidia Fonseca
Medtronic appoints Pfizer EVP as independent board director

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.

Need Drug Discovery news in a minute?

We Deliver!
Drug Discovery & Development Enewsletters get you caught up on all the mission critical news you need. Sign up today.
Enews Signup
Drug Discovery and Development
  • MASSDEVICE
  • DEVICETALKS
  • Medical Design & Outsourcing
  • MEDICAL TUBING + EXTRUSION
  • MEDTECH 100
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Subscribe to our Free E-Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • R&D World
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Drug Discovery & Development

  • Home Drug Discovery and Development
  • Drug Discovery
  • Genomics/Proteomics
  • Oncology
  • Neurological Disease
  • Infectious Disease
  • R&D 100 Awards
  • Pharma 50
    • 2022 Pharma 50
    • 2021 Pharma 50