Merck MECTIZAN Donation Program

In 2007, we marked the 20th anniversary of the MECTIZAN Donation Program (MDP), widely considered an unparalleled success story in terms of the number of people who have benefited and the level of cooperation demonstrated by Merck, UN agencies, nongovernmental development organizations, governments and communities of endemic countries. Since the program's inception, Merck has donated an estimated 2.5 billion tablets of MECTIZAN^® (ivermectin), with more than 700 million treatments administered The program currently reaches approximately 80 million people in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East (Yemen) each year for the treatment of river blindness; approximately 90 million additional treatments of MECTIZAN are approved each year for lymphatic filariasis through Merck's work with the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis.  Among key recent milestones:

• In 2008, it was announced that 31% 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.
• 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. Health officials also announced that onchocerciasis transmission has been halted in certain endemic areas in Ecuador and Guatemala due to the effectiveness of treatment with MECTIZAN.
• Also in November 2007, Merck re-affirmed our pledge to donate as much MECTIZAN as necessary for the elimination of river blindness globally. With this renewed pledge, Merck's donation of MECTIZAN for river blindness is estimated to reach 100 million treatments annually by 2010.
• In December 2007, Merck announced a donation of $25 million over eight years as part of an initiative with the World Bank to raise $50 million in support of river blindness elimination efforts in Africa. The World Bank worked with Merck and other partners to raise the remaining $25 million, providing all the funding necessary for 28 African countries affected by river blindness to develop self-sustaining MECTIZAN distribution programs by 2015. This funding also will enable community-directed treatment for Ivermectin (CDTI) projects to co-implement at least one other health intervention in addition to MECTIZAN delivery and help countries and their partners to improve health care by expanding other health programs to hard-to-reach communities through CDTI.

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The content on this page was last modified on September 15, 2009.

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