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Merck Merges Pharma, Consumer Health Units; Aims to Ramp Up Businesses
German drug maker MerckBSE 5.34 % has merged its pharmaceuticals and consumer healthcare businesses as part of a major makeover unique to India aimed at building scale and ramping up local business with a hybrid model.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Weekly Roundup: A 1,030-Enterprise Survey, a Cuba/U.S. Collaboration, and a ‘Big Bet’ Primer
An expansive survey of social enterprises, a new health care collaboration between some old Cold War rivals, and an ambitious exploration of the challenges of "big bets" in philanthropy highlight this week's roundup of social business and global development news.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Research: A Sustainable Model for Delivering High-Quality, Efficient Cataract Surgery in Southern India
Cataracts are a leading cause of reversible blindness in India, where millions of people can be effectively treated for this condition with surgery. The Aravind Eye Care System in southern India developed an efficient system for delivering high-quality and low-cost cataract surgery. We provide a detailed accounting of costs of cataract surgery at the system and a cost-utility analysis. Total costs per operation were US$120, or $195 per quality-adjusted life-year gained. Using these data and population-based estimates of cataract prevalence, we calculate that eliminating cataract-related blindness and low vision in India would cost $2.6 billion and would yield a net societal benefit of $13.5 billion. Factors contributing to the highly cost-effective care at the Aravind Eye Care System include the domestic manufacturing of supplies, the use of a specialized workforce and standardized protocols, and the presence of few regulatory hurdles. Lessons learned from the system can help improve the delivery of cataract surgery and other ambulatory care surgeries in India and abroad.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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WHO Seeks New Mechanism for Crisis Vaccine Supplies At Low Cost
The World Health Organization, drugmakers and humanitarian groups are hammering out details of a new vaccine supply system aimed at getting vital shots to vulnerable people in crises such as wars or natural disasters.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- vaccines
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UNICEF: Vaccine Price Drop Will Save Millions of Child Lives
The U.N. Children’s Fund reports a steep drop in the price of a crucial childhood vaccine will prevent millions of deaths in dozens of the world’s poorest countries.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- vaccines
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PPPs Key to Improved Health Access in Africa
Approximately 1 billion people worldwide lack access to primary health care facilities. The situation is particularly severe in sub-Saharan Africa, in which an Afrobarometer survey of 36 countries found that approximately half the population living in rural areas lacked access to such facilities. Almost half of those questioned also said that they, or a family member, had gone without medicine or medical care in at least one year prior to the survey.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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It’s Not Business as Usual with Women’s and Children’s Health
Because thousands of women and children die of preventable causes each day, the United Nations Commission on Life-Saving Commodities was established in 2012 with the goal of increasing access to and awareness of 13 underused lifesaving commodities. The commission has largely succeeded in its mission, the authors say, due mainly to its collaborative approach.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Quark Venture, With Help From China, Sets Up $500M Life Sciences Fund in Canada
Investment co Quark Venture and China’s GF Securities are setting up a global $500 million life sciences fund in what the pair are describing as the largest of its kind in the country.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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