Our company at International, Scientific Meetings for Global Health
Publish Date
28 NOV 2018
Overview
As of September 2018, a series of international, scientific conferences and events took place worldwide to exchange about global health challenges.
The Global Health Institute continues to engage with the Global Health community, playing an important role at international, scientific conferences on infectious diseases.
In September 2018, the 9th European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) Forum was the opportunity to foster dialogues with key stakeholders, opening new doors for potential collaborations. The EDCTP Forum, held in Lisbon, provided an international platform for presentation and discussion to address the burden of poverty-related infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, including capacity development and networking components.
Shortly after, the 10th World Health Summit (WHS) held in Berlin brought together 2400 participants from 100 nations. Under the patronage of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, the WHS, held annually under the theme ‘Improving health for everyone on the planet’, is one of the most important international conferences in the field of global health. This year, the speech by S. Oschmann (Chairman of the Executive Board & CEO of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) at the opening of the summit, was complemented by a talk by S. Hildemann (Chief Medical Officer at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) on ‘Health Systems Strengthening’; this presentation underlined the dedicated R&D programs led by the Global Health Institute in collaborations with academic institution, mainly in Africa, and involving local researchers and post-doctoral fellows.
During the summit, the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting 2018 hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) brought together very high-caliber representatives for strategic discussions. Representatives from Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, joined these discussions.
As in previous years, the 67th American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH) Annual Meeting held in New Orleans (October 28-November 1) represented an additional opportunity to meet with tropical medicine and global health professionals from different sectors. Latest clinical data from the Consortium Pediatric Praziquantel program led by our company were presented by the Program Lead, Elly Kourany-Lefoll (Head of Global Health Development Program – Global Health Institute) at the meeting.
In addition, members from the Global Health Institute played also a role at the closed COR-NTD Annual Meeting which preceded ASTMH. COR-NTD meets formally each year with participation from NTD experts, including researchers, implementers, donors and international organization, to review the synergies and provide guidance with the operational research arena for NTDs.
New Orleans was also the location for the annual meeting of Global Schistosomiasis Alliance (GSA) Research Working Group led by Jutta Reinhard-Rupp (Head of Global Health Institute) where partners and experts reviewed and aligned on the schistosomiasis elimination agenda.
In summary, these various meetings have provided the opportunity for Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and its Global Health Institute to be part of impactful discussions on global health. Together with partners and collaborators, these have contributed to foster awareness and engagement amongst key stakeholders and have provided input into the control and elimination agendas for infectious diseases.