Select your Market

Global
Africa
Algeria
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Congo
Congo Democratic Republic
Djibouti
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Ivory Coast
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Madagascar
Malawi
Mauritania
Mauritius
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Reunion Islands
Rwanda
Saint Helena
São Tomé and Príncipe
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
Sudan
Swaziland
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Asia
Bahrain
Bangladesh
China, mainland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Japan
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Malaysia
Oman
Palestine
Philippines
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
South Korea
Syria
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
Vietnam
Yemen
Europe
Albania
Austria
Baltic Region
Belarus
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Netherlands
North Macedonia
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russian Federation
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Türkiye
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Latin America
Argentina
Aruba
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Bolivia
Brazil
Central America
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Curacao-NL Antillen
Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
Jamaica
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
Paraguay
Perú
República Dominicana
Trinidad and Tobago
Uruguay
Venezuela
North America
Canada
United States of America
Oceania
Australia
New Zealand
Global
CAREERS

Our progress

Today - 2024

International Day of the African Child

Early childhood development in children facing schistosomiasis in Africa is part of our Company’s Sustainability Goal of Driving health equity for underserved population.

Learn More

Advancing Health Education

Health education for behavior change is a critical intervention in the fight against schistosomiasis. In partnership with Ubongo Kids, we co-produced a cartoon TV episode about schistosomiasis, which was promoted on Universal Health Coverage Day 2025.

Learn More

Our Commitment for Health in Kenya

In October 2025, a visit to Kenya by our leadership team reaffirmed our commitment to addressing health challenges and improving outcomes for communities affected by schistosomiasis. It underscored the essential role of strong partnerships in driving lasting impact.

Learn More

Mass Drug Administration in Kisumu

In October 2025, we took part in a mass drug administration (MDA) campaign in Kisumu’s endemic lake region in Kenya, where over 1,000 school-aged children received medication. This action is part of ongoing efforts to eliminate schistosomiasis as a public health problem.

Read More

Advancing Local Production

A visit and press event that took place in October 2025 at Universal Corporation Limited (UCL) in Nairobi highlighted the progress of our technology transfer to UCL. This aims to strengthen local manufacturing capacity in Kenya and support long-term access to schistosomiasis treatment for preschool-aged children.

Learn More

Extending Partnership

A new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for an extended and intensified partnership with the END Fund was signed on October 1, 2025. This agreement builds on more than a decade of collaboration between the END Fund and Merck.

Learn More

The Power of Partnership

A new video by the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT) highlights the collaborative journey behind developing a pediatric treatment for preschool-aged children with schistosomiasis in the context of a consortium of partners.

Learn More

#AfricanChildDay2025

In Ethiopia, our partnership with the NALA Foundation has helped reduce schistosomiasis and empowered communities to take charge of their health.

Learn More

#WHA78

A lunch event hosted by Merck at the 78th World Health Assembly brought together leaders from global institutions, governments, and the private sector. The focus? Africa isn’t just responding – it’s leading.

Read More

First preschool-aged child receives the new schistosomiasis treatment

The new pediatric treatment option for schistosomiasis reached first preschooler in Uganda through an implementation research study.

Read more

WORLD NTD DAY 2025

Each year, we mark World NTD Day by creating awareness and enhancing engagement in tackling the neglected tropical disease schistosomiasis. In 2025, we launched a successful social media campaign which reached a wide audience.

Read more

Our commitment to the elimination of schistosomiasis

Interview of Johannes Waltz (Head of the Schistosomiasis Elimination Program)

Read more

New Pediatric Treatment Option for Schistosomiasis closer to the young patients

The new pediatric treatment option for preschoolers, developed within the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium, has now been included into the World Health Organization’s List of Prequalified Medicines.

Read more

World NTD Day 2024

Each year, we mark World NTD Day by creating awareness and enhancing engagement in tackling the neglected tropical disease schistosomiasis. We hosted a celebratory event with a panel of distinguished guests and showcased our photo exhibition.

Read more

Schistosomiasis Research Grant

Pre-clinical researchers in the field of schistosomiasis applied to our fast-funding program - the Schistosomiasis Research Grant. This initiative catalyzes research in an open innovation spirit.

Read more

Bilharzia Storytelling Lab Ethiopia

As part of our efforts to raise awareness of the causes of bilharzia and ways to prevent it, the Bilharzia Storytelling Lab brings together local storytellers to work with experts from health organizations and non-profits. In Ethiopia, the winning team piloted their solution, which employed theatre for development — a community-based approach using performance to facilitate social change.

Read more

Milestone Achieved: Provision of Two Billion Tablets

We are committed to fighting this disease until it is eliminated as a public health problem. Over the past 15 years, we have donated two billion tablets to the World Health Organization to treat schistosomiasis, mainly for school-aged children.

Read more

2023 - 2021

New Treatment Option for Preschoolers

Together with the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium, we have achieved a major milestone in the fight against schistosomiasis. The European Medicines Agency has adopted a positive scientific opinion of a new pediatric treatment option for preschoolers aged 3 months to 6 years with schistosomiasis.

Read more

Behavior Change Interventions for Strengthening Schistosomiasis Control and Elimination

Schistosomiasis still affects more than 200 million people worldwide, despite two decades of focus on preventive treatment. Human behavior is constitutive of the disease’s epidemiology. Behavior change interventions can strengthen control by interrupting transmission by changing exposure behaviors or transmission practices, or by promoting treatment seeking and uptake. Together with the Global Schistosomiasis Alliance Working Group of Behavior Change, four main approaches were identified: health education (HEIs), social-environmental (SEIs), physical-environmental (PEIs), and incentives-centered interventions (ICIs) and reviewed in the effectiveness of behavior change interventions in control efforts of schistosomiasis.

Read more

Artificial Intelligence Diagnostics for Neglected Tropical Diseases

Female genital schistosomiasis (FGS) affects an estimated 56 million women and girls in Africa, accounting for nearly a quarter of all schistosomiasis cases worldwide. Despite this, FGS remains largely understudied and underdiagnosed. In collaboration with the University of Oxford, we evaluated the effectiveness of computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) algorithms for cervical cancer using colposcopy images and assessed their applicability to designing an automated image diagnostic algorithm for FGS.

Read more

Advancing Science for Schistosomiasis

Research remains crucial to accelerate our fight against schistosomiasis. Recent non-clinical results provide additional hints to support our programs.

Read more

World NTD Day 2023

Each year, we mark World NTD Day by creating awareness and enhancing engagement in tackling the neglected tropical disease schistosomiasis. We had a social media campaign across our channels.

Read more

Bilharzia Storytelling Lab Rwanda

As part of our efforts to raise awareness on the causes of bilharzia and ways to prevent it, the Bilharzia Storytelling Lab brings together local storytellers to work with experts from health organizations and non-profits. In Rwanda, the chosen winning solution is a specially designed school notebook that educates children and parents about schistosomiasis, and further workshops for parents and teachers.

Read more

Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium Program in Registration Phase

An estimated 50 million preschool-aged children require a suitable treatment for schistosomiasis. Together with the Consortium, a potential new pediatric treatment option for children 3 months to 6 years of age has been developed. In November 2022, on behalf of the Consortium, we submitted the application to the European Medicines Agency which validated it and has now started its scientific review process.

Read more

Joint Article with the END Fund

Strong partnerships are essential to fight against the NTD (neglected tropical disease) schistosomiasis. That’s why we’ve been working closely with the END Fund in Rwanda and across Africa to end the sickness caused by parasitic worms, for which millions of people require treatment annually. Our Healthcare CEO and member of the Executive Board of Merck, Peter Guenter, co-authored an article with Ellen Agler, CEO of the END Fund, outlining the mechanisms of successful partnerships necessary to accelerate progress towards the elimination of NTDs.

Read more

The Kigali Summit on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases

The summit was a historic opportunity for governments, scientific experts, partner companies, and community champions to show the world how malaria and neglected tropical disease (NTD) programs unlock the potential to create a safer world for all, everywhere. On June 23rd, world leaders and their partners came together in Kigali, Rwanda, to demonstrate their commitment to end NTDs that cause suffering and misery to billions of people. In a joint video statement, together with CEOs from global pharmaceutical companies, our Healthcare CEO and member of the Executive Board of Merck, Peter Guenter, re-confirmed our commitment to fight against the NTD schistosomiasis until elimination.

Read more

World Economic Forum Article by Peter Guenter

Our Healthcare CEO and member of the Executive Board of Merck, Peter Guenter, underlines the core goal of the schistosomiasis program: the elimination of this devastating disease. A new publication in the medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases shows that we are getting closer to achieving this goal.

Read more

New Study on Schistosomiasis Published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases

Working closely with our partners, we set our sights on the NTD schistosomiasis 14 years ago – and our efforts are paying off. According to new data, the prevalence among school-aged children in sub-Saharan Africa has decreased by nearly 60% between 2000 and 2019. That's the result of a study by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Read more

World NTD Day 2022

Each year, we mark World NTD Day by creating awareness and enhancing engagement in tackling the neglected tropical disease schistosomiasis. In 2022, we created an awareness week.

Read more

Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium Completes Clinical Development Program

A new treatment option for schistosomiasis in preschool-aged children has completed the pivotal clinical Phase III trial. The new child-friendly tablet was developed by the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium, a public-private partnership led by Merck.

Read more

Local Manufacturing & Access for New Pediatric Medication for Schistosomiasis

Merck has entered into a contract manufacturing agreement with Universal Corporation Ltd., Nairobi, Kenya, a subsidiary of Strides Pharma Science Limited, India, for the large-scale production of a new pediatric medication once it will be registered. The drug is needed to treat schistosomiasis in children below the age of six. The agreement with Universal includes building up extensive production capacities in Nairobi, Kenya for future provision of the treatment in endemic African countries. The new medication has been developed by the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium, led by Merck.

Read more

Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium Program

The Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium is an international public-private partnership dedicated to developing a pediatric formulation to treat schistosomiasis in preschool-aged children. The program is currently in Phase III, with pivotal trials generating confirmatory data for registration. In early 2021, the Consortium launched its ADOPT program to ensure wide acceptance and equitable access.

Read more

Rapid Diagnostic Test

Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) are urgently needed to simplify testing and guide treatment campaigns in community settings across Africa. Merck is a member of a global health strategic partnership developing and validating an innovative RDT for schistosomiasis.

Read more

Bilharzia Storytelling Lab Kenya

We hosted a virtual Bilharzia Storytelling Lab in Kenya. It offered Kenyan community leaders and storytellers the opportunity to envision new ways of accessible and tailored disease information. The concept of a card game to educate young children through playful learning was selected as the best project and received our support for implementation.

Read more

Face Mask Donation

As part of efforts to eliminate schistosomiasis in Africa, Merck partnered with the NALA Foundation. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, 90,000 FFP2 masks were donated and distributed to community health workers and schools.

Read more

Schistosomiasis Research Grant

Merck's Schistosomiasis Research Grant catalyzes research through open innovation. Pre-clinical researchers applied to this fast-funding program, fostering advancements in the field.

Read more

World NTD Day 2021

Each year, we mark World NTD Day by creating awareness and enhancing engagement in tackling the neglected tropical disease schistosomiasis. Various articles and press releases were published around World NTD Day 2021 and an ISNTD Connect Webinar took place.

Read more

ISNTD Connect Webinar

Schistosomiasis is one of the most prevalent parasitic infections in Africa, placing a significant burden on public health and local economies. Access to schistosomiasis innovation is the next frontier to reach the elimination of this disease. To learn more about our collaborative efforts to beat schistosomiasis watch the replay of the ISNTD Connect webinar.

Read more

Partnership with the END Fund

To bolster Rwanda’s plan to end schistosomiasis by 2024, we will provide Rwanda, in partnership with The END Fund, with 8 million additional tablets of the standard medication for the treatment of schistosomiasis per year. The tablets are needed for treating adults endangered by schistosomiasis and will complement our annual donation for the treatment of school-aged children. The END Fund has been a key partner for the Rwandan national strategic plan for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in the past and continues to do so through its Deworming Innovation Fund. [©The END Fund/Gabriel Dusabe]

Read more

WHO Roadmap 2030

On the 28th of January 2021 the WHO launched its new NTD Roadmap 2030! We stay committed to actively support the efforts of the global elimination of NTDs, such as schistosomiasis.

Read more

2020 - Previous

NALA Partnership Extended

We have renewed our partnership with the NALA Foundation – which stands for Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Advocacy, Learning, Action – and the Federal Ministry of Health of Ethiopia until 2023 to fight the NTD Schistosomiasis in south-western Ethiopia. Through this project, we will continue to expand our efforts to reach more than 170,000 school-age children in six districts with the highest prevalence of schistosomiasis. Additionally, we will seek to reach 50,000 community members in 8,000 households.

Read more

Partnership to develop a technology to fight Neglected Tropical Diseases

We have entered into an agreement with Jannsen Pharmaceutica, N.V. (company of Johnson and Johnson) to develop an artificial intelligence based diagnostic tool to improve the detection of the Neglected Tropical Diseases schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis.

Read more

Reaching a milestone for World NTD Day 2020: Provision of the billionth tablet

On the first ever World NTD Day we announced and celebrated the major milestone of providing the billionth tablet to WHO. We will continue #MakingSchistory until this devastating disease is eliminated.

Read more

World NTD Day 2020: Leave no one behind

Together with more than 240 organizations around the world, we have partnered in support of the first-ever World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day (NTD) on January 30th to beat the painful and deadly diseases.

Read more

A photo story from rural Ethiopia

With the help of humanitarian photographer, Marcus Perkins, we are exhibiting how schistosomiasis has affected rural and low-income communities, mostly in Africa. On the occasion of the 72nd World Health Assembly in Geneva we hosted an exhibition highlighting on Neglected Tropical Diseases, particularly schistosomiasis. The photos tell the personal story of the small boy Manyazewal and how the efforts of the global schistosomiasis community are helping millions of children like him to get back to school. In October 2019 the exhibition was shown in our headquarter in Darmstadt and will start to travel in 2020 and beyond.

Read More

Blog post Fighting for freedom from parasites

What is Schistosomiasis? It’s a chronic disease that leads to pain in every inch of your body and mainly effects children.

Read More

Have you seen the worm? (2017)

Celebrating ten years of donating tablets to WHO for African countries. To mark this milestone moment in the history of schistosomiasis, a giant worm was placed on Lake Geneva in 2017. The idea behind the worm was to draw global attention to the disease. Since then, the worm has appeared on many different occasions.

Understanding Schistosomiasis:

  • What is Schistosomiasis?

    Schistosomiasis is a water-borne tropical disease caused by parasitic worms. Click below to learn more about it.
    learn more

  • Living our Commitment

    More than a decade ago we committed ourselves to the fight against schistosomiasis. Learn more about our efforts to eliminate the disease.
    learn more

  • Schistosomiasis

    For a comprehensive overview of our various efforts regarding schistosomiasis, please return to the homepage.

    Learn more