Pfizer, Carter Center Partner in Global Health Project

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter joined Pfizer at the company’s headquarters on Nov. 5, 2013 to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the International Trachoma Initiative (ITI), an independent, not-for-profit program dedicated to the elimination of blinding trachoma as a public health concern. Trachoma is an infectious eye disease that is a leading cause of blindness in the developing world. Pfizer has provided hundreds of millions of doses of the antibiotic Zithromax (azithromycin) to help the global campaign wipe out blinding trachoma by the year 2020.

Pfizer, through the ITI, has donated more than 340 million doses of the antibiotic to date to prevent and treat trachoma in support of the World Health Organization(WHO)-led Global Alliance for the Elimination of Trachoma by the year 2020. ITI has managed the distribution of the antibiotic to 28 countries in Africa and Asia since 1998. Approximately 320 million people worldwide are at risk for contracting trachoma, with about 7 million suffering from the advanced, blinding stage of the disease.

“The Pfizer donation of Zithromax was momentous in trachoma control, and The Carter Center was pleased to go to scale in trachoma-endemic countries to get the medicine into the villages and demonstrate the world could end blinding trachoma,” President Carter said during a celebration with partners, nongovernmental organizations, and Pfizer employees at the company’s headquarters in Manhattan.“The progress and success of the trachoma campaign is something every Pfizer colleague can be proud of. Through the 15-year partnership, millions of people worldwide will be spared the injustice, indignity, and pain of their eyelashes scratching and scarring their eyes,” added President Carter.

Source: PharmTech.com (link opens in a new window)

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Health Care
Tags
public health, public-private partnerships, vaccines