Because our range of medicines is not relevant to the treatment of the most significant healthcare problems that the developing world is facing today, we believe we can best help by applying our global skills, resources and experience to meeting the challenge in other ways. We have a dedicated scientific resource that focuses on finding a new treatment for tuberculosis (TB), a major threat to life in the developing world. Alongside this ongoing research programme, we continue to expand our efforts to help hard-hit communities fight TB and to help vulnerable communities in the developing world to strengthen their local healthcare capabilities.
Four years ago, we joined forces with the British Red Cross to help them combat TB in Central Asia, specifi cally in Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, where a high proportion of the population live below the poverty line and the incidence of TB remains at seriously high levels. With funding from AstraZeneca, the Red Cross/Red Crescent‘s community-based work has focused on raising awareness of TB, fighting the stigma associated with the disease, encouraging
early diagnosis, improving patient compliance and building local capabilities in prevention and control. Progress to date includes a significant increase in community awareness of TB following a media campaign and health
education sessions in schools and public places, which have reached over 300,000 people. An increasing number of diagnosed patients are now completing their treatment, due to the care and support of the dedicated
Red Cross/Red Crescent nurses.
We are also supporting the charity in a new programme in Kazakhstan, aimed
at reducing the incidence of TB/HIV co-infection, which has emerged as a
significant threat to public health in the region. The local Red Crescent organisation is working to establish effective, sustainable and replicable models of treatment and social support for patients with TB and HIV, and their families.
In January 2007, we further expanded our partnership with the British Red Cross and are supporting them over the next three years in their work to help local communities combat TB and the major threat of TB/HIV co-infection in the hard-hit areas of South Africa and Lesotho.
In 2007, AstraZeneca's partnership with the British Red Cross was commended as one of the leading community based programmes to fight TB by the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. (www.businessfightsaids.org)
We also further increased the geographic footprint of our support activity during the year through a partnership with the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) that focuses on helping to strengthen healthcare systems and integrate delivery of TB/HIV/malaria programmes in Uganda, a country where there is a high burden of all three diseases. Because this combination of diseases is not yet widely addressed, the programme presents an opportunity to develop and innovate a new model in Africa.
As part of our ongoing commitment to working collaboratively, we actively engage in international efforts to help in the fight against TB. In 2006, we helped fund and participated in the second Open Forum on Key Issues in TB Drug Development, organised by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance), Treatment Action Group (TAG), and the Stop TB Partnership Working Group on New Drugs. The workshop involved representatives from industry, academia and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and focused on key issues in the critical path to TB drug registration and pivotal trials as well as the challenges in TB drug development for special populations, including people living with HIV/AIDS.
We also participated in a new Stop TB Partnership for Europe, established by
the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies with the World Health Organization (WHO), European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and other leading European agencies and NGOs to forge a more effective response to the TB epidemic in areas of Europe. The partnership aims to strengthen strategic impact by engaging a broad range of stakeholders, including private sector, foundations, academic and research institutions, media, NGOs and civil society.
AstraZeneca is the only major pharmaceutical company involved in the New Medicines for TB (NM4TB) project, begun in 2006. Funded by a grant from the EU Framework VI programme and consisting of around fifteen groups of Europe’s most prominent scientists and researchers in the field, this consortium seeks to combine academic and pharmaceutical skills to further the discovery of new therapies for TB.
As well as the availability of appropriate medicines, access to healthcare depends on having a functional healthcare system, trained healthcare staff and effective supply and distribution mechanisms in place to ensure that medicines are used to their full effect as part of overall healthcare management. In some parts of the developing world, this is a particular challenge.
To explore how we might best help in meeting this challenge, in 2005 AstraZeneca began a pilot project in Ethiopia that is designed to build local capability in managing breast cancer – the second most common cancer
among young women in that country. At the outset, Ethiopia had only one cancer
specialist for the entire population; there was no mammography; no easy access to chemotherapy or hormonal agents; no cancer screening and no national treatment protocol. In its first 18 months, our programme has focused on strengthening diagnosis and treatment capabilities at Tikur Anbessa University Hospital in Addis Ababa (where the country’s two oncologists are based).
AstraZeneca’s breast cancer medicines are also being donated. Ongoing objectives for the project include raising awareness of the facilities amongst healthcare professionals and strengthening the referral system; setting up an institutional-based cancer registry; providing training for other physicians in
Ethiopia and establishing Tikur Anbessa University Hospital as a centre of excellence for the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. In the longer term, the sustainability of the project will be ensured through the educational initiatives established during the pilot, including the development of treatment guidelines, as well as assistance in putting in place mechanisms for future funding of the diagnostic and screening procedures. The programme also has a robust outreach strategy, aimed at bringing the breast cancer challenge in developing
countries to the attention of policy makers and international organisations such as the World Health Organization and the Union of International Cancer Coalitions. This is the fi rst project of its kind for us and we plan to run the pilot for three years to enable meaningful evaluation of its impact. If successful, we hope that it will provide a model that can be replicated in other countries and other disease areas.
In a new approach to applying our skills and experience where they can be most
useful, in 2006 we entered a three-year partnership with Voluntary Service
Overseas (VSO), an international development charity that works through volunteers to strengthen core capabilities in the developing world. The charity focuses on six strategic goals: education, disability, secure livelihoods, participation/governance, HIV/AIDS and health and social wellbeing. We have committed funds and a senior manager secondment to the agency to help them further develop their strategy and framework for delivering their health goal. In addition, AstraZeneca is enabling employees to volunteer for placements in appropriate countries to support the charity’s overall goals. Selected employees will be sent on secondment for up to 12 months, drawing on the skills they can offer in human resources, finance, IT and communications, health and medicine. The placements will seek to build professional capabilities in the government, non governmental and community based organisations that play a key role in developing and improving important infrastructures in developing countries. For our employees, it provides the opportunity to make a personal contribution whilst developing their skills in leadership, collaboration and project management as part of their career development.
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