Johnson & Johnson this week unveiled a new global public health initiative stemming from a new facility in South Africa.
The New Jersey-based pharmaceutical and consumer products giant officially opened its Cape Town operations on Tuesday and detailed plans to help bolster health care across the continent and world.
J&J said that public health staff, as well as representatives from its various companies, will focus on end-to-end health needs including education and training, research and development and manufacturing and distribution.
Company teams will also help translate those efforts into programs that can be executed in communities with local health partners.
The initial phase will focus on HIV, tuberculosis and maternal, newborn and child health in South Africa.
“This is a model based on innovation, collaboration, and local empowerment that aims to address life threatening issues and deliver measurable results to improve outcomes for patients, families and communities, first across Africa, and more globally in the longer term,” J&J Pharmaceuticals Chief Scientific Officer Paul Stoffels said in a statement.
The announcement detailed several new and recent partnerships, including initiatives to prevent the spread of HIV among adolescent girls and to improve health care delivery in low-income areas. The latter effort will begin with 19 clinics before expanding to 50 throughout South Africa.
Johnson & Johnson teams will also work with academic centers and entrepreneurs to establish incubators for medical startups.
The company expects to establish satellite public health offices later this year in Kenya and Ghana and, eventually, expand both its geographic reach and its health targets.
“Ultimately, we’re aspiring to build a healthy world free of disease and our approach here is a potential blueprint for helping us and others succeed against that broader, global goal in the future,” said Chairman and CEO Alex Gorsky.
The program is also expected to increase investment in Johnson & Johnson’s current operations in Africa, which includes three manufacturing plants and more than 1,500 employees.
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