Since the inception of the Merck MECTIZAN® Donation Program (MDP), Merck has donated more than 2.5 billion tablets of MECTIZAN for river blindness, with nearly 700 million treatments approved since 1987. The program currently reaches more than 80 million people through river blindness programs in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East (Yemen) annually.
Additionally, 300 million treatments for lymphatic filariasis (LF) have been approved, with nearly 90 million treatments approved in 2008 alone.
To date, Merck has invested approximately $35 million dollars in direct financial support for the MECTIZAN Donation program, in addition to donating $3.9 billion worth of tablets.
The donation of MECTIZAN also has led to the development of community-directed treatment with ivermectin (CDTI) programs through which trained community volunteers distribute medicines, a critical element to effective mass treatment programs in remote areas that often lack trained health care workers. CDTI programs currently exist in more than 117,000 communities in 27 countries in Africa, five in Latin America and Yemen; CDTI programs for lymphatic filariasis exist in 14 countries in Africa and Yemen. The CDTI strategy has enabled other health and social services — such as vitamin A distribution, cataract identification, immunization campaigns, training programs for community health workers and census-taking — to be introduced in often remote communities where health services are limited. Close to 60 percent of MECTIZAN community distributors have assumed added responsibility of at least one additional health intervention.
River Blindness and Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) Performance Data Summary 2005-2008
| |
2008 |
2007 |
2006 |
2005 |
| Direct investment in the MECTIZAN Donation Program (US$ Million) |
5.5 |
3.1 |
3.0 |
2.9 |
| Number of treatments approved (at 3 tablets per treatment) |
174.2M |
128M |
118M |
114M |
| Market value of MECTIZAN donations (US$ Million) |
549 |
480 |
396 |
383 |
| Number of countries with LF elimination programs supported by the MECTIZAN Donation Program (Target: 30) |
15 |
14 |
9 |
9 |
| Number of countries in Latin America with >85% coverage rate with MECTIZAN (level necessary for elimination of disease river blindness transmission. Target: 6) |
5 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
| Number of treatments with MECTIZAN approved for river blindness |
86.7M |
80.5M |
69.25M |
62.2M |
| Number of treatments with MECTIZAN approved for LF |
87.5M |
47.8M |
48.7M |
42.6M |
Impact
- In 2002, the OPEC Fund estimated that the Merck MECTIZAN Donation Program prevented 40,000 cases of blindness annually, and that a direct result of this would be 7.5 million years gained of productive adult labor.
- In the 19 countries of the African Program for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC), more than 3 million disability-adjusted life years have been saved since 1995 and the prevalence of itching and skin lesions due to onchocerciasis has been reduced by 80 percent.
- The impact of the MECTIZAN Donation Program extends beyond the immediate health benefits; estimates show that investments in river blindness control programs (e.g., MECTIZAN treatment and aerial spraying to control black fly populations) are helping people live not only healthier, but also more productive, lives.
2008
- In 2008, it was announced that 31 percent of the formerly at-risk population in the Americas is no longer at risk of contracting the disease.
- Also in 2008, the Pan American Health Organization passed a resolution to interrupt transmission of the disease in the Americas by 2012.
2007
- In November 2007, public health officials announced that transmission of river blindness had been halted in Colombia, marking the first time that the disease has been eliminated as a public health problem on a country-wide basis anywhere in the world. The Ministry of Health in Colombia will initiate a three-year post-treatment surveillance period, after which the World Health Organization (WHO) certification will occur.
- The success of the program in Latin America means that 74,476 people in 190 communities are now free of the threat of river blindness, and signals the potential for a future free of river blindness in all of the Americas.
- In a promising development toward elimination of river blindness in Africa, WHO's department of Tropical Disease Research is conducting studies to determine endpoints to stopping treatment with MECTIZAN in certain areas of West Africa.
Impact of MECTIZAN Donation Program as of September 2008
| River blindness treatments approved |
Nearly 90M treatments annually; nearly 700M total treatments approved since 1987 |
| Lymphatic filariasis (LF) treatments approved |
Nearly 90M annually; more than 300M total treatments since 2000* |
| Countries receiving MECTIZAN to treat river blindness |
33 |
| Countries receiving MECTIZAN to prevent LF |
15 |
| Blindness cases prevented |
40,000 annually |
| Acres of previously abandoned arable land recovered |
62M |
| Productive adult labor available in recipient countries by 2010 because of MECTIZAN Donation Program |
7.5M years |
| Value of MECTIZAN Donation in 2008 (US$) |
$549M |
* includes some combined LF/river blindness treatments
A Lasting Legacy
In April 2004, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health published an impact study on the Merck MECTIZAN Donation Program. They found that the MDP has become "a model for innovation that can address other health challenges … and leaves a legacy of how a public/private partnership can work." To view the complete report, click here.
The content on this page was last modified on September 15, 2009.
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