NEWS RELEASE Wednesday, 29 December 2004

VITAL DONATION OF VITAMINS IS AIRLIFTED TO AFGHANISTAN AS NEW INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP GETS UNDER WAY

Christmas Gift for the Vulnerable in Advance of the Afghan Winter Provides a New Chance for Life

A national and international venture of co-operation between the public, private and voluntary sectors, facilitated by the newly established charity International Health Partners, has resulted in airlifting a consignment of vitamins (Centrum and Seven Seas) to Kabul on Boxing Day. The donation of nine pallets of much needed medicines is in response to the needs of the Afghan Ministry of Health and World Health Organisation (WHO) programme to meet the urgent needs of the Afghan people.

Life expectancy in Afghanistan is a mere 40 years, and one in four children die before the age of five, due to severe social deprivation and inadequate health and medical infrastructure. The vitamins will be a vital nutritional supplement for babies, children, pregnant mothers and for the elderly through the Afghan winter and into 2005. Vitamin supplements play a key part in health improvement programmes for vulnerable people, especially those in war torn parts of the developing world.

Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, Seven Seas Ltd, DHL, QBL and UniChem have worked together with IHP and its sister charity Health Partners International of Canada (HPIC) in putting together a 2000 kg consignment of vitamins in the form of baby drops, chewable children's tablets, and adult and geriatric tablets with a retail value of £100,000. The vitamins will be used alongside medically supervised courses of treatment for between 2,500 to 4,000 people and will be administered by the Afghan Ministry of Health within a WHO supervised primary healthcare programme.

Anthony Dunnett, President of IHP, said: "We knew through our sister company HPIC's contacts with the Afghan Ministry of Health and WHO that there was a specific need for vitamins. We successfully matched that need with two donations of in-date vitamins direct from the manufacturers, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare (Centrum) and Seven Seas, and, with the support of their packaging agents, the wholesaler UniChem, and of DHL as freight carrier, we have been able to arrange the humanitarian airlift of the vitamins in time for the New Year."

International Health Partners (UK) Ltd, a new charity based on a successful pre-existing Canadian model and supported by the Government and both of the main opposition parties, was officially launched on 11 November 2004.

Mr. Dunnett added, "This first humanitarian airlift of donated vitamins represents precisely the reason why we exist - to ensure safe and secure management and delivery of donations of pharmaceutical products from the UK. We did not expect to be organising such an airlift only one month after being officially launched. This would not have been possible without the active support of a wide range of companies across the UK - from East Sussex to Lancashire and Yorkshire - and it demonstrates that corporate social responsibility and the provision of health services in the developing world can be brought together in the interests of the global poor."

"I would specifically like to thank Wyeth and Merck for the donation of their Centrum and Seven Seas products respectively and DHL for ensuring the safe delivery at this busy time of year at no charge. It is very fitting that our first shipment should be to a people in such need, delivering what we, in the West, take for granted, but which will radically change the life chances of those facing the ravages of war" Mr Dunnett concluded.

Edwin Borman, Chair of the International Committee of the British Medical Association International Committee said: "this donation of vitamins, that we take for granted in the UK, will be a much-needed boost for the primary healthcare given to many thousand of Afghans, and could be life-saving for babies and the elderly.  I encourage my colleagues in medicine, and those in the pharmaceutical and the healthcare supplies industries to support this initiative by International Health Partners so that shipments like this become a regular occurrence rather than a special occasion.  With just a little extra effort, we in the UK can significantly improve the healthcare and life chances of those in the Developing World ."

For Further Information

Anthony Dunnett + 44 (0) 1892 784118

Jenina Bas +44 (0) 7971 551 778 jbas@pendrywhite.com

Notes to Editors :

Background Information on IHP:

  • IHP was legally established early in 2004 and received charitable status in August, 2004. IHP was launched in The House of Lords on Remembrance Day, 11 November 2004, with the cross party support of the three principal party leaders and the five stakeholder groups (see below).
  • IHP is a partnership initiative bringing together the five stakeholder groups: the pharmaceutical and healthcare supplies industries (represented by the ABPI, ABHI, BAPW, BGMA, and the PAGB); the Medical Community (BMA, Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Royal Colleges); non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and five Departments of Government (HMT, DfID, DoH, DTI, ODPM/No 10).
  • IHP has been established to act as the trusted intermediary between industry donors and relief and developing organisations providing medical healthcare in the Developing World. There is presently no other body in the UK that:

o Enables the industry to safely donate supplies to where they are needed; and

o Facilitates NGOs to access the breadth of the industry without having to approach each company individually.

IHP accredits NGOs, audits and provides feedback on donations to ensure that there is appropriate clinical distribution and avoidance of product diversion into the markets. IHP also coordinates the response for donated medical supplies, ensuring, wherever possible, that they are directed to projects that strategically work with the healthcare programmes agreed by the local community.

  • It is estimated that there is the potential for over £50m of additional donated medical supplies from the UK. It is important that any donated aid complements international aid programmes (including the UK government's) which focus on local capacity building to ensure sustainable healthcare solutions. Donated aid has a key role to play in meeting humanitarian health care needs, while low income countries focus on building effective healthcare infrastructures and local low cost medicine markets and production.
  • Review the IHP website for further information