Contributing to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

In an effort to quantify the contribution made by the overall pharmaceutical industry to sustainable development, along with other pharmaceutical companies, Novartis participated in a survey spearheaded by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA).

The results, unveiled in December 2005, show that, since the United Nations proclaimed their Millennium Development Goals in 2000, the industry has created 126 health partnerships that have made available medicines, vaccines, equipment, health education and manpower worth USD 4.38 billion, providing more than 540 million treatments to patients.

Over the years, individual pharmaceutical companies have set up a variety of on-going programs addressing developing world health needs, but until this survey, there was no accurate, overall understanding of the industry’s collective contribution to helping people in the world’s poorest and most needy countries. This is now more transparent and the picture we see is an encouraging one, and a benchmark by which we can measure future progress.

Despite this important contribution to people’s lives in the world’s poorest countries, responding to the huge public health challenge will require even more collaboration between the private and public sectors, as well as creativity and hard work.

The health of people in developing countries cannot be improved simply by increasing the amount of drugs that companies donate. It also requires infrastructural changes, i.e. more clean water, better sanitation, improved clinics and hospitals as well as better training and retention of healthcare workers.

Pharmaceutical companies are directly providing more and more of this kind of grass-roots help.