German drug firms pressured by WHO

German drugmakers Bayer and Merck KGaA are coming under growing pressure from the World Health Organization, to give away praziquantel, a treatment for the "neglected" tropical disease schistosomiasis, which kills an estimated 20,000 people worldwide, but affects up to 200 million, mostly in Africa.

Lorenzo Savioli, Director of the WHO's control of neglected tropical diseases department, told the Financial Times that "this is a real market failure because schistosomiasis affects the poorest of the poor." He added that negotiations were stalling between the global agency and the two drug firms, claiming that: "Bayer tells us to talk to Merck and Merck tells us to talk to Bayer."

One aspect of the problem appears to be that Merck developed the drug for veterinary use and sold the rights for human use to Bayer. The cost per tablet for the latter is considerably higher than for animal use.