Eisai Introduces Access to Medicines Website

Japanese drugmaker Eisai has launched a new Access to Medicines Navigator website to get proper medical treatments to patients who have no access due to inadequate medical services and supply systems.

The site explains the causes and symptoms, prevention methods and treatments for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, as well as the World Health Organization’s 17 high-priority neglected tropical diseases:

• Leishmaniasis;
• Chagas disease;
• Lymphatic filariasis;
• Dracunculiasis;
• Human African trypanosomiasis;
• Blinding trachoma;
• Leprosy;
• Schistosomiasis;
• Onchocerciasis;
• Dengue fever;
• Buruli ulcer;
• Rabies;
• Cysticercosis;
• Echinococcosis;
• soil-transmitted helminthiasis;
• Foodborne trematodiases; and
• Endemic treponematoses.

Drug inserts detail Eisai’s own DEC treatments for lymphatic filariasis, which WHO provides for free, and explains the purpose and use of those treatments at a level appropriate for the general public, the drugmaker says.

The site also summarizes the difficulties that large drug companies perceive in developing drugs for these diseases due to low demand in their own countries and details international partnerships with philanthropic organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

According to the company, neglected tropical diseases are endemic in 149 countries across Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, sickening approximately 1 billion people.

The website is available in Japanese at http://atm.eisai.co.jp/ and in English at http://atm.eisai.co.jp/english/. — Lena Freund

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