On World NTD Day 2024 we hosted a celebratory event in our Merck Headquarters in Darmstadt which was broadcasted to all our employees worldwide.
The event under the theme ‘Unite. Act. Eliminate.’, will shed light on the schistosomiasis work undertaken by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany over the years, as well as the road ahead towards elimination of schistosomiasis.
Since its start in 2007 the Schistosomiasis Elimination Program has hit major milestones. Over more than 15 years, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany has donated 2 billion tablets, enabling the treatment of 800 million patients, primarily school-aged children, in 47 countries all over sub-Saharan Africa.
We will also celebrate the critical milestone achieved for a new pediatric treatment option for preschool-aged children, which received the scientific positive opinion by the European Medicines Agency in December 2023. Read the press release here.
We also welcomed a panel of distinguished guests, key global health experts, to give us first-hand insights into the critical efforts to achieve the ambitious elimination goal: Juerg Utzinger, Director of the Swiss Tropical and Pubic Health Institute (Swiss TPH), Pamela Mbabazi, Medical Epidemiologist at the WHO, Michael Makanga, Executive Director of the Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking, and Sam Myer, Vice President of Public Affairs at the END Fund.
We displayed our Photo Exhibition “Leaving no one behind” during a period of two weeks in the Innovation Center of our Headquarters. The photo exhibition showcases the experience of Manyazewal, a young boy in Ethiopia, who caught schistosomiasis and was able to recover thanks to concerted international efforts.