Eisai Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Tokyo, CEO: Haruo Naito, ¡°Eisai¡±) has announced that it will grant a total of 625 million yen to the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (¡°GHIT Fund¡±) to fund the third phase of its activities, which will take place in the five-year period from FY2023 to FY2027. The GHIT Fund is a public-private partnership, co-established in April 2013 by partners such as Japanese pharmaceutical companies (including Eisai), the Japanese government, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, for the purpose of accelerating development of new medicines to cure infectious diseases in developing and emerging countries by facilitating collaboration between research organizations in Japan and overseas. Eisai has provided a total of 1 billion yen to the first phase (FY2013 ¨C FY2017) and the second phase (FY2018 ¨C FY2022) of the GHIT Fund.

In order to develop treatments for the numerous people suffering from infectious diseases such as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and malaria in developing and emerging countries, there are disease-specific development and marketability issues to overcome. It is also necessary to establish local supply systems and help patients secure access to diagnosis and treatments. The key to overcoming these challenges are industry-government-academia partnerships which transcend the usual sector boundaries.

Eisai considers making efforts to resolve the global issue of access to medicines to be its duty. Under a public-private partnership including governments, international organizations, and private non-profit organizations, Eisai has participated in 23 joint research projects to develop new medicines and vaccines for mycetoma, malaria and filariasis, with the support of the GHIT Fund.

Eisai has conducted a Phase II clinical trial of its in-house developed agent E1224 (generic name: fosravuconazole) in Sudan for the treatment of mycetoma in partnership with the non-profit organization Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi). Eisai is also conducting a Phase II clinical trial of antimalarial agent SJ733 in collaboration with the University of Kentucky.

Eisai considers efforts for improving access to medicines, such as the elimination of NTDs and malaria, as activities aimed at creating long-term corporate value and social impact based on its corporate concept of human health care (hhc). We will continue to strengthen cooperation with our global partners and contribute to ¡°relieving anxiety over health¡± and ¡°reducing health disparities¡± for people at risk of infection with NTDs and those suffering from theses diseases.

 

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