Sanofi-Aventis gives $20 mn for tropical diseases

GENEVA, Oct 11: Sanofi-Aventis SA pledged 20 million dollar to the United Nations health agency today to fight three of the world's most neglected tropical diseases: leishmaniasis, Buruli ulcer and Chagas disease.

Under a five-year agreement signed with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva, the French pharmaceutical maker will provide funds to detect, prevent and treat the scourges most often found in remote corners of South and Central America, Africa and the Middle East.

Sanofi-Aventis will also donate 5 million dollar of drugs to treat sleeping sickness, extending a former deal between the company and the WHO until 2011.

Leishmaniasis, a scarring ailment spread by bites from sand flies, infects 1.5 million people worldwide each year.

Some 50,000 people die from the parasitic Chagas disease every year, and Buruli ulcer, rooted in the same family of bacteria as those causing tuberculosis and leprosy, has been reported in more than 30 countries, according to WHO data.

REUTERS