LAGOS-Mr Oladimeji Agbolade, Head of Public Affairs, Sanofi Africa, on Thursday said the company would partner with Paediatric Association of Nigeria (PAN) to combat pneumonia in children.
Sanofi is a multinational pharmaceutical company with the world’s fifth-largest prescription sales in 2014.
Agbolade made the disclosure in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the 2014 World Pneumonia held on Wednesday.
The statement said that Sanofi was committed to aiding children in 18 African countries, including Nigeria in the fight against community acquired pneumonia.
NAN reports that community acquired pneumonia is a lung disease acquired infectiously from normal social contact.
According to the statement, Pneumonia is the single largest cause of death in children under five, killing more children than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
It said the joint PAN and Sanofi paediatric initiative was entitled “Healthy Children, Happy Children”, and involved three commitments.
It added that the first commitment was to develop medicines and vaccines; the second was to train healthcare professions and the third to raise health awareness among the general public.
The statement said the development of medicines and vaccines initiative involved adapting healthcare to young African patients and making it accessible through differential pricing policy.
“By taking account of the epidemiology profiles of each African country, Sanofi will broaden its therapeutic area; develop formulations and dosages adjusted to the specific needs of each patient.
“Secondly, Sanofi is dedicated to the training and communication of healthcare professionals through providing quality medical information in the form of continuous medical education programs,” it said.
The statement said that Sanofi was working on a series of trainings done for healthcare professional in Nigeria on the management of community acquired pneumonia in children.
It noted that seven trainings had been implemented in Lagos, Enugu, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Kano and Ibadan.
“Three hundred and fifty-five general practitioners were trained between July and September.
“Our objective is to align with the 2014 World Pneumonia Day theme, “Universal Access to Pneumonia Prevention and Care,” it said.
To mark the day, the statement said that Sanofi was supporting the Institute of Child Health (ICH), Benin, in a health talk and market rally.
According to the statement, peadiatrics was a priority for Africa because one child out of four in the world was African and 50 per cent of the worldwide infant mortality occurred in Africa.
It said that up to 1.1 million children under five died from pneumonia in 2012, most of them in developing countries because they could not access healthcare facilities and treatments. (NAN)