Andrew Witty, GlaxoSmithKline's CEO, announced plans to build a new manufacturing production line in India that will transform the progress towards helping to eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) by 2020. The new facility, to be built in Nashik, is expected to deliver an additional 300 million treatments of albendazole per year for what is on track to be the largest drug donation programme in global pharmaceutical industry history.
Production will begin in late 2008 and will double GSK's current global albendazole capacity. GSK will invest nearly £200,000 in the facility as well as converting existing equipment to produce the tablets for donation. In addition to potentially saving the Indian health system an estimated US$30m in treatment costs each year this dramatic increase in capacity will improve the lives of over 550 million people in India who live at risk of developing this debilitating condition.
Worldwide more than 1.3 billion people live at risk of disability and disfigurement caused by LF, one-third of those at risk live in India. The cost to the Indian economy is estimated to exceed US$840m every year due to treatment costs, reduced working time and lost productivity.
The global programme to eliminate LF has already become the most rapidly scaled-up drug administration programme in public health history. Since the programme began in 2000, more than 1.9 billion treatments have been given to over 570 million people in 48 of the 83 countries with endemic LF.
Andrew Witty, CEO GlaxoSmithKline said, "Thirty years ago, scientific breakthroughs led to the eradication of smallpox. Today we hope another disease, Lymphatic Filariasis, to be consigned to the history books. Promising new data show that the simplicity of the disease elimination programme is working. Through the investment in India we are able to focus on one of the largest areas at risk from LF and support the Indian Government's current efforts to control and eliminate this crippling tropical disease."
"We have been working towards the common goal of the elimination of LF with our partners in the Global Alliance for over a decade. This programme has demonstrated the power of partnership in the elimination of diseases of the developing world," he added.
In addition, the benefits of the LF programme will be set out at a major international symposium in London where findings from a new study to mark the 10-year anniversary of the LF elimination programme will be presented. The paper will also be published in the open-access journal Public Library of Science Neglected Tropical Diseases.
The new study proves that elimination is possible - showing that in the ten years since its initiation, the international effort to eliminate LF has made unprecedented strides towards ridding the world of one of its most debilitating diseases.
The study found that the LF elimination programme has prevented 6.6 million children from acquiring LF and stopped another 9.5 million people already infected with the disease from progressing to more debilitating stages.
All of this is the result of the most rapid scale-up of a drug administration programme in public health history, delivering what the study calls the 'best buy in public health'.
Sameer Deb, general manager for Institutional Business Development at GSK India said, "The new manufacturing unit in India will reduce cost of goods and improve security of supply by manufacturing in a GSK plant. To the people of India this will mean that many years of life with this crippling condition will be saved. By adding this major increase of albendazole to the Indian Government's scaled up DEC programme we will improve the efficacy of treatment, reducing the number of rounds required and providing the additional benefit of de-worming."
The elimination programme is based on a simple two drug, once-yearly treatment of at-risk individuals using safe and effective medicines (albendazole plus either Mectizan or diethylcarbamazine [DEC]).
GlaxoSmithKline - one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies - is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.