Industry Provides Antibiotics, Heart Medicines And Painkillers Needed In Lebanon By Its Health Ministry, The WHO And NGOs

In rapid response to urgent medical needs in the Lebanon, the researchbased pharmaceutical industry has donated antibiotics, heart medicines, painkillers and other treatments. Ahead of the international donors' conference in Stockholm to raise funds to help the Lebanon, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) today provided an overview of medical aid already furnished by its member companies. IFPMA Director General Dr. Harvey Bale said: "While the wholesale value of medicines donated by pharmaceutical companies for this latest Lebanese emergency is approaching USD 5 million, what is more significant is how quickly these products have been made available and that the donations were to meet the specific emergency demands of the Lebanese Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization and experienced non-governmental organizations operating in the region." Dr Bale continued: "Such a rapid response can only be achieved by working closely with the organizations on the ground, national governments and the WHO. Existing specialized pharmaceutical aid coordination organizations, notably Health Partners International of Canada, International Health Partnerships (UK), Partnerships for Quality Medicine Donations (USA) and TULIPE (France), have played an invaluable role in ensuring the speed and focus of the pharmaceutical industry's recent humanitarian aid effort in the Lebanon." The medicines provided by pharmaceutical companies for emergency use in the Lebanon include anesthetics, antibiotics, anticonvulsants, antidepressants, antidiarrheals, antifungals, antiinflammatories, antiretrovirals, heart medicines (antiarrhythmic, anticoagulant, anticholesterol, antiplatelet and hypertension treatments), laxatives, stomach medicines (beta-blockers and H2- antagonists), painkillers and tranquilizers. The donor companies involved include: AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Jansen-Cilag, Merck & Co., Novartis, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, sanofi-aventis and Schering Plough. The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations is the global nonprofit NGO representing the research-based pharmaceutical, biotech and vaccine sectors. Its members comprise 26 leading international companies and 46 national and regional industry associations covering developed and developing countries. The industry's R&D pipeline contains hundreds of new medicines and vaccines being developed to address global disease threats, including cancer, heart disease, HIV/AIDS and malaria. The IFPMA Clinical Trials Portal (http://www.ifpma.org/clinicaltrials) and IFPMA activities in Health Partnerships (http://www.ifpma.org) help make the industry's activities more transparent. The IFPMA strengthens patient safety by improving risk assessment of medicines and combating their counterfeiting. It also provides the secretariat for the International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH).