IFPMA president calls on research-based Pharma to continue its MDG contributions beyond 2015

Ahead of the United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals on September 20-22 to review progress and look at ways of accelerating the goals of the MDG initiative, Haruo Naito, president of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) and president and chief executive of Japanese drug major Eisai, said: “The research-based pharmaceutical industry shares the UN Secretary General’s belief in the importance of the MDGs for humankind and has responded with a broad range of contributions, mostly aimed at improving health in developing countries.”

The UN’s 2010 MDG Report indicates that the goals are achievable, despite uneven progress, and exhorts everyone to try to keep the promise of the Millennium Declaration.

Mr Naito went on to say that, “while achievement of the MDGs will help to put us on the path towards a more stable, just and secure world, they will only take us so far in that direction. A longer-term effort is needed to further reduce global health inequalities, and I therefore encourage our industry to maintain its MDG-related efforts beyond the 2015 horizon. The research-based pharmaceutical industry plays a unique role in improving health: we cannot fix health inequalities on our own, but we need to keep playing our part.”