Novartis launches SMS for Life 2.0 in Nigeria to help improve access to essential medicines
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Novartis International AG /
Novartis launches SMS for Life 2.0 in Nigeria to help improve access to
essential medicines
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* SMS for Life 2.0 launches for the first time in Kaduna State, Nigeria's
third most populous region, in collaboration with the Kaduna State Ministry
of Health
* Program uses smartphones and tablet computers to improve access to medicines
and increase disease surveillance, helping to provide better care for
patients
* Initiative builds on the success of award-winning SMS for Life and will
introduce eLearning for local healthcare workers
Basel, December 12, 2016 - Novartis announced today the launch of an innovative
technology-based healthcare program called SMS for Life 2.0 in Kaduna State,
Nigeria. The program aims to increase the availability of essential medicines
and improve care for patients across the region by using simple, available, and
affordable technology. SMS for Life 2.0 is a joint public-private partnership
led by Novartis and supported by its partners, the Kaduna State Ministry of
Health and Vodacom.
"Novartis is proud to partner with the Kaduna State Ministry of Health to
implement the first ever SMS for Life 2.0 program," said Joseph Jimenez, CEO of
Novartis. "Companies must join forces with the public sector to co-create
innovative solutions to improve access to healthcare around the world. This is
the first step in what we hope will be an impactful public health initiative,
unleashing the potential of mobile technology and big data to increase the
quality of care for underserved patients."
SMS for Life 2.0 builds on the SMS for Life program launched by Novartis in
2009, which used cell phones to manage stock-outs of malaria medicines in more
than 10,000 healthcare facilities in sub-Saharan countries. The new and enhanced
SMS for Life 2.0 program will now use smartphones and tablet computers to
address key operational challenges at peripheral healthcare facilities in Kaduna
State. Local healthcare workers will be able to track stock levels of essential
antimalarials, vaccines, and HIV, TB and leprosy treatments, and send
notifications to district medical officers when stock levels are low. The
program will also monitor surveillance parameters of malaria, maternal and
infant deaths and seven other diseases, including measles, yellow fever and
cholera. In addition, SMS for Life 2.0 will enable training of healthcare
workers in local facilities using on-demand eLearning modules.
"We welcome the introduction of SMS for Life 2.0 in primary healthcare
facilities, where we often face stockouts of medicines," said Dr. Hadiza S.
Balarabe, Executive Secretary of Kaduna State Primary Health Care Development
Agency. "With more than six million people, Kaduna is Nigeria's third most
populous state. We hope the program will improve healthcare services by
expanding access to essential medicines, thus reducing disease prevalence in
communities."
Medicines do not always reach the patients who need them, particularly those
living in remote areas. Running out of stock is a major hurdle in ensuring
access to essential treatments. By increasing stock visibility, health
authorities will be able to monitor stock levels of these medicines in real
time. Furthermore, disease surveillance data combined with the stock reporting
function can improve supply chain management, by allowing authorities to better
forecast demand for the treatments. This will help to ensure people get the
medicines they need in a timely fashion.
"Vodacom believes that mobile technology is a powerful platform to address
healthcare problems in Africa," said Vuyani Jarana, Chief Officer of Vodacom
Business. "Our vision in partnering with Kaduna State is to support the
development of productive societies which are healthy, well-educated and
economically active. The SMS for Life 2.0 initiative will contribute towards
better quality and more accessible healthcare services which will in turn
contribute to an increase in life expectancy in Nigeria."
In addition to the launch in Nigeria, Novartis and its non-profit partner Right
to Care, have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Zambian Ministry of
Health to deploy SMS for Life 2.0 in up to 2,000 health facilities across the
country. The program, which will include stock reporting, disease surveillance
and eLearning, will be supported by Vodacom and is expected to launch in Q2
2017.
About SMS for Life 2.0
SMS for Life is a Roll Back Malaria Partnership initiative, led by Novartis,
with the purpose of developing and helping countries implement new innovative
solutions to the long-standing problem of medicine stock-outs at the remote
health facility level in order to significantly improve patient access to
healthcare commodities in developing countries.
The program was launched in 2009 by the Novartis Malaria Initiative to manage
stock-outs of malaria medicines in sub-Saharan countries. A new enhanced version
of this award-winning program, called SMS for Life 2.0, now uses smartphones and
tablet computers.
The program allows public healthcare facilities to monitor stock levels of
essential medicines such as antimalarials, HIV treatments, and vaccines.
Further, it can and will be extended to treatments against noncommunicable
diseases. The system sends notifications to district medical officers
responsible for treatment availability when stock levels are low, helping to
avoid stock-outs. Tablet computers also allow for disease monitoring by
supporting data collection of basic disease parameters in line with a country's
needs. They can also be used to deliver high-quality training to healthcare
workers by making eLearning modules available on demand.
About the Novartis Malaria Initiative
The Novartis Malaria Initiative is committed to drive research, development and
access to novel drugs to eliminate malaria. It is one of the pharmaceutical
industry's largest access-to-medicine programs. Since 2001, the initiative has
delivered more than 800 million treatments without profit, including over 300
million dispersible pediatric treatments, mostly to the public sector of
malaria-endemic countries.
Novartis has a long heritage in antimalarial drug development. Coartem®, the
first fixed-dose Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT), was launched in
1999. ACTs are the current standard of care in malaria treatment. Currently,
Novartis leads two of the four most advanced malaria development programs
worldwide, with two potential antimalarial therapies in Phase II clinical trials
(KAF156 and KAE609). Both are new classes of compounds that treat malaria in
different ways from current therapies, and could help combat growing resistance
to existing artemisinin-based combination therapies.
The Novartis Malaria Initiative is integrated in Novartis Social Business, a
unit which includes Novartis Access and the Novartis Healthy Family programs.
This unit is operationally managed by Sandoz, the Novartis generics and
biosimilars division.
Disclaimer
This press release contains expressed or implied forward-looking statements,
including statements that can be identified by terminology such as "to
accelerate," "will," "confident," "continues to," "potential," "next-
generation," "to further drive," "committed," "pipeline," "could," "would," or
similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views
of the Group regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially
different from any future results expressed or implied by such statements. These
expectations could be affected by, among other things, risks and factors
referred to in the Risk Factors section of Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on
file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the
information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any
obligation to update it in the future.
About Novartis
Novartis provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving
needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis
offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines,
eye care and cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals. Novartis is the only global
company with leading positions in these areas. In 2015, the Group achieved net
sales of USD 49.4 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to
approximately USD 8.9 billion (USD 8.7 billion excluding impairment and
amortization charges). Novartis Group companies employ approximately 118,000
full-time-equivalent associates. Novartis products are available in more than
180 countries around the world. For more information, please visit
http://www.novartis.com.
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Source: Novartis International AG via GlobeNewswire
Unternehmensinformation / Kurzprofil:
Datum: 12.12.2016 - 07:15 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 512096
Anzahl Zeichen: 11696
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Kategorie:
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