Global Health Solutions

In 2023, over 376 million treatments were approved for river blindness and LF elimination-a modest increase from 2022 when 364 million treatments were approved. This includes nearly 58 million treatments approved for the implementation of "triple therapy" in 12 countries. So far, Merck has shipped Mectizan to 22 countries and territories to facilitate the implementation of IDA to accelerate the elimination of LF in countries where river blindness is not endemic. As of the end of 2023, cumulatively, more than 5.5 billion Mectizan treatments have been approved by the Mectizan Donation Program, and more than 13 billion tablets have been shipped to 58 endemic countries by Merck since the donation was announced in 1987. In 2023, progress was reported for both diseases. For river blindness, 47 million no longer need treatment in 13 countries; for LF, over 305 million no longer need treatment in 20 countries. The Mectizan Donation Program and its partners are on track to meet the elimination targets established by the World Health Organization's 2021-2030 Neglected Tropical Disease Road Map to eliminate onchocerciasis in 12 countries and lymphatic filariasis in 58 countries.

The International Trachoma Initiative (ITI) works tirelessly for a world free from trachoma, even in the midst of a global pandemic. ITI contributes to eliminating trachoma as a public health threat by stewarding Pfizer's donation of Zithromax(R) to treat and prevent the condition; building and strengthening partnerships to accelerate progress; and developing innovative tools to share data. Between September 2022 and August 2023, ITI organized just-in-time shipments of 41.5 million treatments for trachoma to be distributed at MDAs in 15 countries. As of August 2023, ITI has shipped more than 1.022 billion treatments to trachoma-endemic countries since the program's inception in 1999. ITI continued its data management support for Tropical Data, a free mobile phone-based service to support trachoma programs as they conduct prevalence surveys, providing them with robust data for decision-making on where antibiotic treatments are needed and where they can be stopped. Since its inception in February 2016, Tropical Data has supported over 3,700 surveys across 52 countries. As a key player in the global trachoma community, there have been tremendous achievements in reducing the population at risk of blindness from trachoma from an estimated 1.2 billion people in 2000 to 115.7 million in April 2023 according to the World Health Organization's (WHO) Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER). ITI will continue to work smarter so that the dream of a trachoma-free world becomes a reality.