PHA-Exchange> Pfizer Offering Free Eye Antibiotic to poor countries in Africa & Asia

[Aviva]

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- In a major boost to a U.N.
campaign to eradicate an eye infection that causes
blindness, Pfizer announced that it will provide an
antibiotic free to treat about 90 percent of the 150
million people afflicted.

The international organization leading the fight
against trachoma-related blindness said it is
``enthusiastic'' that with the medicine it can now
achieve the goal set by the World Health Organization
of eliminating the ancient scourge by 2020.


Over the last five years, the pharmaceutical giant has
provided eight million doses of the antibiotic
Zithromax to the International Trachoma Initiative to
treat sufferers in nine impoverished countries in
Africa and Asia.

Hank McKinnell, Pfizer's chairman and chief executive
officer, told a news conference Tuesday that the
initial program had been so successful that Pfizer
would donate 135 million additional doses of Zithromax
over the next five years.

``That represents a 15-fold increase and the largest
donation of a patented medicine in history,'' he said.

Zithromax is an antibiotic that is used primarily to
treat respiratory tract infections in children. It has
over $2 billion in worldwide sales annually, McKinnell
said.

McKinnell said the 8 million doses, plus other support
to the initiative from Pfizer over the last five
years, was worth about $300 million in wholesale
prices in the countries where Zithromax was
distributed.

He refused to put an estimate on the value of the 135
million additional doses, but another Pfizer executive
said it runs into ``many hundreds of millions'' of
dollars.

Serge Reznikoff of the World Health Organization
called the Pfizer announcement ``very exciting and
promising.''

Over the past century, trachoma was eliminated in many
countries, including virtually all of the Americas,
Europe and Australia. In the early 1900s, infected
immigrants were barred from entering the United States
and trachoma was a major public health concern until
it was eradicated over a half century ago.

But it is still prevalent in 48 countries in the
poorest parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America where
clean water and sanitation are scarce.

Trachoma is caused by the bacterium Chlamydia
trachomatis which can be spread easily by hands,
clothing, or flies that have come into contact with
discharges from the eyes or nose of an infected
person. Over time, it results in turned-in eyelashes
which then scratch and scar the cornea, leading to
blindness if not treated.

Trachoma was initially treated with tetracycline
ointment in the eye, but it required five to seven
applications daily for 10 days and McKinnell said the
compliance with this regime was ``terrible.''

He said Zithromax represented a major step forward
because it can be administered in a one-time single
dose -- either an oral solution for children or four
pills taken together.

``With a single dose you have a cure which is quite
dramatic,'' McKinnell said, explaining that Zithromax
eliminates the Chlamydia that causes blinding
trachoma.

The International Trachoma Initiative is a partnership
among Pfizer, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation,
national governments and non-governmental
organizations.