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2 November 2005

The Deputy Minister of Health, Mrs Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, has commended GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for spearheading a global collaboration to eliminate Lymphatic Filarisis (LF) commonly known as elephantiasis mostly in developing countries. The collaboration has become the global alliance of the World Health Organization (WHO), four private and public institutions along with elephantiasis endemic countries.

Speaking at the dedication ceremony in Cape Town today, the Deputy Minister applauded GSK for their commitment to donate sufficient quantities of its antiphrastic medicine, albendazole, for use in all elephantiasis endemic countries for as long as it takes to eliminate the disease. “Our continent is plagued by preventable and unusual diseases such as elephantiasis. Current figures show that 120 million people are affected by elephantiasis and over one billion people in 80 countries, primarily in tropical and sub tropical areas of Africa, Asia and America, are threatened by this disease. The developing world is also faced with an enormous challenge to eradicate diseases such as HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. I would like to urge more pharmaceutical companies to help governments of the developing world to eradicate these diseases,” said Madlala-Routledge.

The Deputy Minister also appealed to pharmaceutical companies to financially support medical research. “I was encouraged to learn about GSK’s new public-private partnership to develop GSK Biological tuberculosis candidate vaccine. TB causes two million deaths a year and is the leading cause of death amongst people with HIV/AIDS in the developing world. We eagerly await the outcome of advance clinical trials to determine safety and immunogenic trials in Europe involving adults previously infected with TB or vaccinated with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG). We need more research to address challenges in dealing with diseases such as cervical cancer. A lot needs to be done in addressing the shortage of relevant skills. We need to train more specialist health personnel in order to be better equipped to deal with these challenges, said the Deputy Minister.

The Deputy Minister also applauded GSK for the residential chemistry training experience for 20 South African students that will take place in the UK in January 2006. During this time students will be exposed to the work done by chemistry graduates in the pharmaceutical industry.

Madlala-Routledge concluded by thanking GSK for choosing to build this plant in South Africa as this move contributes to the country’s economy and creates job opportunities for local people while developing their skills. The factory was built at a cost of R18 million and is expected to operate at R1.2 million a year.

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Issued by: Department of Health
2 November 2005