By Mary Mwendwa
Nairobi, Kenya: Novartis has announced the launch of medicines that will treat symptomatic COVID-19 patients. The initiative is expected to help patients in low income and lower-middle-income countries access affordable medicines to treat major symptoms of COVID-19.
In the absence of a vaccine and a cure for COVID-19 , Inflammation and respiratory problems linked to COVID-19 can cause severe medical complications and can lead to death in some people, putting immense strain on fragile healthcare systems.
According to Dr. Lutz Hegemann, Chief Operating Officer for Global Health at Novartis, “Access to medicine can be a challenge for patients in low- and lower-middle-income countries and the situation has worsened during COVID-19. With our COVID-19 portfolio, we wish to help address the additional healthcare demands of the pandemic in the countries we are targeting.”
Dr. Sandoz CEO Richard Saynor adds, “This initiative builds on our earlier global commitment to keep prices stable for a basket of essential drugs used to treating COVID-19 patients,” adding “The COVID-19 response Portfolio for low-income and lower-middle-income countries is designed to support governments in treating COVID-19 symptoms before they lead to complications in patients.”
The Novartis COVID-19 portfolio includes 15 medicines from its Sandoz division for gastrointestinal illness, acute respiratory symptoms, pneumonia as well as septic shock. The medicines were chosen based on clinical relevance and availability to ensure demand can be met globally.
The medicines will be made available to governments, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and other institutional customers in up to 79 eligible countries at zero-profit to support financially-strained healthcare systems.
Countries will have the flexibility to select the medicines in the portfolio that meet their healthcare needs. Eligible countries must be included on the World Bank’s list of low and middle-income countries.
Amoxicillin, Ceftriaxone, Clarithromycin, Colchicine, Dexamethasone, Dobutamine, Fluconazole, Heparin, Levofloxacin, Loperamide, Pantoprazole, Prednisone, Prednisolone, Salbutamol, and Vancomycin are medicines from Novartis that are expected to help in the fight against COVID-19.
These medicines will be offered in addition to the Novartis Access portfolio (on- and off-patent medicines against key non-communicable diseases) via the local Novartis or Sandoz affiliate.
This global pandemic has placed extreme pressure on healthcare systems in low- and lower-income countries. The pandemic response portfolio complements the previously launched Novartis COVID-19 Response Fund to support healthcare workers and communities in over 50 projects around the world.
The COVID-19 medicines portfolio is Novarti’s latest contribution to the global effort to combat the pandemic and support the stability of global healthcare systems.
The company has committed to donating USD 40 million to support communities around the world impacted by the pandemic.
In addition, Novartis has been active in two key cross-industry research initiatives, the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, coordinated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard, as well as a COVID-19 directed partnership organized by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI).
Novartis continues to provide hydroxychloroquine for ongoing investigator-initiated trials (IITs) and upon government requests, as appropriate.
Novartis is also separately supporting COVID-19 related clinical investigations of several it’s medicines. To support access, the Novartis generics and biosimilars division Sandoz became the first company to commit to keeping stable prices for a basket of essential medicines that may help in the treatment of COVID-19 and entered into a partnership with US-based Civica Rx to support stable supply of essential generic hospital medicines.
Furthermore, AveXis, Novartis gene therapy unit, entered into a manufacturing agreement with Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Massachusetts General Hospital to produce its novel genetic COVID-19 vaccine candidate called AAVCOVID.
