IFPMA members gave 11% of health aid

International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Association members contributed about 11% of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development states' health assistance to the developing world in 2005, according to the IFPMA's latest health partnerships survey. This measures the research-based drug companies' contribution to help attain the health-related United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. The latest data shows that, from the inception of the MDGs in 2000 through to the end of 2007, IFPMA members made available 1.75 billion health interventions to help improve the health of people in low- and middle-income countries, a year-on-year increase of about 380 million.

Fred Hassan, the IFPMA's president and chairman of US drug major Schering-Plough, said that this third such survey "confirms that our industry's contribution to improving the health of people in developing countries is substantial and sustained. It reflects not only product contributions but also education and other actions for the long term. And it does not even include our industry's investment in R&D for developing world diseases."