Merck, a leading science and technology company, has announced further commitment to Africa, by expanding its access and awareness programmes and strengthening the health systems and patients in low- and middle-income countries across the continent. The announcement came during the Africa Health ExCon (5-7 June) in Cairo, Egypt.
The three-day event saw stakeholders across Africa sharing and exchanging knowledge and experiences with more than 20,000 participants from more than 55 countries.
“Our aspiration is to be one of the leading healthcare partners in sub-Saharan Africa and to work with NGOs and governments to build and strengthen sustainable health systems within it,” said Dr Karim Bendhaou, head of Merck Africa Bureau.
Merck unveiled plans to expand its footprint in Africa through a four-tiered programme of awareness, diagnosis, training of healthcare professionals and treatment access. It also announced its new thyroid awareness programme and upcoming launch of the Africa Cancer Care programme in addition to enhancing ongoing initiatives.
Thyroid disease awareness is relatively very low in Africa, and the ThyroAfrica programme’s objective is to establish a collaborative partnership with the endocrinology and thyroid disease societies on the continent. The goal is to increase disease awareness via communication channels for mass reach of around 7m people and to offer the proper link for TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone) test.
The Africa Cancer Care programme will be launched by the end of June to enhance colorectal cancer diagnosis across Africa by creating hubs of RAS testing in countries like Kenya and Nigeria. The RAS (RAT Sarcoma) test is a gene mutation analysis in colorectal cancer. As a predictive biomarker for the disease, it helps to guide treatment and determine outcomes. This would help to counteract the rising demand for specialist care especially with the existing healthcare facilities that require the scaling of resources.
This has led to the rise in medical tourism across the continent, as individuals seek specialised care elsewhere. This is in addition to enhancing access to medication and providing HCP capacity-building programmes through high quality trainings to oncologists, pathologists, nurses to support diagnosis and treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer in Africa.
“We remain committed to increasing access to innovative medicines across Africa and on awareness campaigns for underserved populations in low- and middle-income countries through our investments and our innovations in science and technology,” said Ramsey Morad, regional vice-president, Head Middle East, Africa, Turkey & Russia/CIS at Merck Healthcare.
After signing a Memorandum of Understanding, Merck and the African Federation for Fertility Societies (AFFS) have been jointly working on an agenda to further develop educational training programmes for healthcare professionals to improving access to high-quality infertility care for patients in Africa.
Merck also continues its work in the fight towards the elimination of the neglected tropical disease (NTD) schistosomiasis towards its elimination as a public health burden.
In partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO), it provides up to 250m tablets of praziquantel per year to treat mainly school-aged children in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
Since 2007, Merck has donated more than 1.5bn tablets and enabled the treatment of more than 600m children in 47 countries in SSA.
To support the elimination of schistosomiasis, Merck has adopted an integrated approach which, beyond medicines, includes health education as well as water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) initiatives. It also conducts research for new drugs and diagnostics and develop, with a consortium of partners, a potential new paediatric treatment option for children aged 6 and below.
Since 2015, Merck has also been very active in the fight against malaria. Examples include its M5717 drug development programme as well as the creation of the Pan AfricanVivax and Ovale Network (PAVON) in more than 10 countries, which has led to important policy changes regarding malaria in Botswana.
Issued by Merck