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Roselyne Sachiti Features, Health and Society Editor
Covid -19 has brought more challenges on the African continent already burdened by HIV and Aids, and other communicable diseases like tuberculosis.
While richer nations are able to pay for medicines that treat major symptoms of Covid-19 at whatever cost, the same does not apply to most third world countries who have a smaller purse.
At the same time, the number of new Covid-19 cases is rising in Africa.
For example, by July 15, Africa had 644 205 cases, 14 044 deaths and 334 547 recoveries, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control.
Zimbabwe had 1089 positive cases, 395 recoveries and 20 deaths.
While cases in Africa are currently lower than the cases reported outside the region, nations remain on high alert as they try to avoid transmission.
A litany of measures such as restricting travel, case detection and contact tracing, mandatory quarantine, guidance and information to the public among other efforts are being implemented across the continent.
In response to medicines procurement challenges, leading global medicines company, Novartis, yesterday announced a new initiative to help patients in low-income and lower-middle-income countries (LIC; LMIC) access affordable medicines to treat the major symptoms of COVID-19 – a critical need in the absence of a vaccine or curative treatment.
Inflammation and respiratory problems linked to COVID-19 can cause severe medical complications and can lead to death in some people, putting immense strain on fragile healthcare systems.
In a statement, Novartis said the COVID-19 portfolio includes 15 medicines from its Sandoz division for gastro-intestinal illness, acute respiratory symptoms, pneumonia as well as septic shock. The medicines were chosen based on clinical relevance and availability to ensure demand can be met globally.
According to Novartis, the medicines will be made available to governments, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and other institutional customers in up to 79 eligible countries at zero-profit to support financially-strained healthcare systems. Countries will have the flexibility to select the medicines in the portfolio that meet their healthcare needs. Eligible countries must be included on the World Bank’s list of LICs & LMICs, adds Novartis.
“Access to medicine can be a challenge for patients in low- and lower-middle-income countries and the situation has worsened during COVID-19. With our COVID-19 portfolio, we wish to help address the additional healthcare demands of the pandemic in the countries we are targeting,” said Dr Lutz Hegemann, Chief Operating Officer for Global Health at Novartis.
Sandoz CEO Richard Saynor said the initiative builds on their earlier global commitment to keep prices stable for a basket of essential drugs used to treating COVID-19 patients.
“The COVID-19 Response Portfolio for low-income and lower-middle-income countries is designed to support governments in treating COVID-19 symptoms before they lead to complications in patients,” he said.
The following medicines are included in the Novartis COVID-19 Response Portfolio:
Amoxicillin, Ceftriaxone, Clarithromycin, Colchicine, Dexamethasone, Dobutamine, Fluconazole, Heparin, Levofloxacin, Loperamide, Pantoprazole, Prednisone, Prednisolone, Salbutamol, Vancomycin.
The portfolio will be offered in addition to the Novartis Access portfolio (on- and off-patent medicines against key non-communicable diseases) via the local Novartis or Sandoz affiliate.
Novartis adds that the Covid-19 global pandemic has placed extreme pressure on healthcare systems in low- and lower-income countries.
The pandemic response portfolio complements the previously launched Novartis COVID-19 Response Fund to support healthcare workers and communities in over 50 projects around the world.
The COVID-19 medicines portfolio is Novartis latest contribution to the global effort to combat the pandemic and support the stability of global healthcare systems.
The company has committed to donating US$ 40 million to support communities around the world impacted by the pandemic. In addition, Novartis has been active in two key cross-industry research initiatives, the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, coordinated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard, as well as a COVID-19 directed partnership organized by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). Novartis continues to provide hydroxychloroquine for ongoing investigator-initiated trials (IITs) and upon government requests, as appropriate. The company is also separately supporting COVID-19 related clinical investigations of several Novartis medicines. To support access, the Novartis generics and biosimilars division Sandoz became the first company to commit to keeping stable prices for a basket of essential medicines that may help in the treatment of COVID-19 and entered into a partnership with US-based Civica Rx to support stable supply of essential generic hospital medicines. Furthermore, AveXis, Novartis gene therapy unit, entered into a manufacturing agreement with Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Massachusetts General Hospital to produce its novel genetic COVID-19 vaccine candidate called AAVCOVID.
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