Drug Companies Donate Vaccines, Cash
June 22, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
The pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly has pledged $15-million over five years to create a new tuberculosis-research center in Seattle, reports The Seattle Times.
The new nonprofit center will be a collaboration among Lilly, the Infectious Disease and Research Institute, and other research organizations to develop medications to treat drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis. Any medicines the research center creates will be owned jointly with Lilly, the newspaper reports.
GlaxoSmithKline, another drug company, announced it will add 50 million doses of influenza vaccines — enough for 24 million people — to the World Health Organization’s vaccine stockpile, kept for the world’s poorest regions.
“One is beginning to see the pharmaceutical industry stepping up to the plate when it comes to neglected diseases,” says Bruce Carter, of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development.
