Merck in collaboration with Maharashtra University and University of Indonesia is introducing European Accredited Clinical Diabetes management for more than 5000 medical and pharmacy students of both universities as part of Merck Capacity Advancement Program (CAP) in Asia.

The 5-year-programme has been developed by EXCEMED – Excellence in Medical Education and is accredited by the European Accreditation Council of Continuous Medical Education (EACCME). The course will be taught by European and local Diabetes and Thyroid experts.

Stefan Oschmann, vice chairman and deputy chief executive oficer, Merck said: "We’re excited about this partnership as it allows us to launch our CAP in India and Indonesia and help provide sustainable access to quality health solutions and medicines in the countries. It marks another step in our commitment to working with governments and other stakeholders in building healthcare capacity with a focus on non-communicable diseases in various countries in Asia-Pacific, Middle East Africa and Latin America."

Prof. Mahdi Jufri, dean of faculty of pharmacy, University of Indonesia, said: “In recent years, we have seen a rapid rise in type 2 diabetes across all age groups in Indonesia and Asia–Pacific region, therefore there is an urgent need to develop accredited teaching programs for health sciences students so that diabetics treatment must be handled by holistic approach with other primary health care providers besides medical doctor, such as: pharmacists, nurses, and public health."

Rasha Kelej, head of global business responsibility and market development at Merck’s biopharmaceutical business Merck Serono, said, “Our CAP is part of Merck responsibility agenda that demonstrates our commitment to the global social and economic development. Supporting diabetes and thyroid education will contribute significantly to improving awareness, early diagnosis and prevention of the diseases. Before Indonesia and India, we’ve kicked off the 5-year-programme successfully in Africa and will further expand it to other African, Asian, Middle Eastern and Latin American countries in 2015 in order to establish Merck Africa-Asia platform for global health.”

Prof. Dr Arun Jamkar, vice chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, emphasized “It gives us immense pleasure to invite the stakeholders in the field of medicine and diabetes in Maharashtra In joint collaboration with DMER and Merck, this Diabetes education course aims to provide guidelines and clinical practice for prevention, diagnosis and management of diabetes and its complications for medical undergraduates of the 18 medical colleges in Maharashtra university.”

Merck's CAP, by end of 2015, more than 5,000 medical students in partnership with African universities such as University of Nairobi, Makerere University, Namibia University and University of Ghana, in addition to Asian universities such as Maharashtra University, India and University of Indonesia will benefit from European-accredited clinical diabetes and chronic diseases management training, which is seeking to equip them with skills to avert the diabetes epidemic. Merck is planning to target more than 15,000 students by the end of 2018 expanding to more Universities in the developing countries.