Lilly grants $4M for MDR-TB program

US drug majore Eli Lilly has announced its four-year grant of nearly $4.4 million to the World Health Organization for scaling up its global capacity to manage multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) programs.

The grant covers four activities, starting with the technical assistance that the WHO will provide to developing countries which the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria operations do not cover. The WHO will provide assistance to some 25 countries in their clinical management of MDR-TB, infection control, laboratory facilities and community outreach. Second, the WHO will conduct workshops for health care personnel so they can better design and manage TB programs, for laboratory technicians so they can test for first and second line drug susceptibility, and for administrative personnel to record and report on TB incidence in their countries.

A third component is support for training global MDR-TB experts so they can expand training in developing countries, run workshops in infection control, and strengthen laboratories for proper diagnosis and treatment. Finally, the grant will support the field-testing and evaluation of a new information system to record and report on MDR-TB rates in two countries.