Pharmaceutical company, Novartis, and the Malaria No More charity have announced that they are to join forces in the fight against malaria
The Power of One campaign will use the latest social, mobile, and e-commerce technologies to rally the public globally and encourage them to contribute.
Over the next three years, the campaign will see Novartis support the campaign financially and also donate up to three million full courses of its pediatric antimalarial drug to match the number of treatments donated by the public, therefore doubling the impact of these donations.
“We believe that this innovative campaign will help speed malaria elimination,” said Joseph Jimenez, Novartis CEO. “Novartis has been striving towards this goal for more than a decade, and we just reached the milestone of providing 600mn treatments without profit to patients in malaria-endemic countries. No one should die from malaria today.”
A child dies from malaria every minute yet malaria is a preventable and treatable disease. The Power of One campaign aims to address the global treatment funding gaps between now and the end of 2015 through direct donations and existing government commitments.
“The Power of One campaign challenges the global public to help close the global treatment gap for malaria," said Martin Edlund, CEO of Malaria No More. "Every dollar raised will buy and deliver a full course of life-saving child treatment. We are delighted to be partnering with forward-thinking companies like Novartis to help end deaths from this disease - one dollar and one child at a time.”
Novartis join a number of high profile companies backing the Power of One campaign, including malaria rapid diagnostic test provider, Alere, Time Warner, Twitter and others.
“Malaria is a complex issue and needs a multi-pronged collaborative approach. We can’t solve a problem like this on our own,” said Linus Igwemezie, head of the Novartis Malaria Initiative. “Through partnerships, with organisations like Malaria No More, we can speed up progress toward the ultimate goal of malaria elimination.”
The Power of One campaign will be launched officially in the third quarter of this year. Until then and to mark the announcement of the campaign, the first 10,000 people to sign up and register their interest on the Power of One website (http://www.Po1.org) will help provide a treatment to a child with a confirmed case of malaria in Africa.
