{"id":11254,"date":"2020-07-16T17:52:17","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T17:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/kenya\/?p=11254"},"modified":"2020-07-16T17:52:17","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T17:52:17","slug":"novartis-to-provide-no-profit-covid-19-drugs-to-low-income-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/novartis-to-provide-no-profit-covid-19-drugs-to-low-income-countries","title":{"rendered":"Novartis to provide ‘no profit’ Covid-19 drugs to low-income countries"},"content":{"rendered":"

AfricaPress-Kenya:<\/strong> Novartis\u2019s Sandoz division \u00a0will not make a profit on 15 generic drugs it is making available to developing countries to treat symptoms of COVID-19, the Swiss drugmaker said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Novartis said it would provide medicines ranging from antibiotics and steroids to diarrhea pills to 79 countries on the World Bank\u2019s list of low- and lower-middle income nations.<\/p>\n

The Basel-based drugmaker plans to maintain the zero-profit programme until the pandemic ends or a vaccine or cure is found, Novartis Global Health Chief Operating Officer Lutz Hegemann said in an interview.<\/p>\n

While Novartis has not seen supply-chain shortages despite increasing demands for COVID-19 medicines, Hegemann said this new programme aimed to help to keep vulnerable healthcare systems in Africa, Asia, South America and European countries Ukraine and Moldova from becoming overloaded.\u201c<\/p>\n

We shouldn\u2019t underestimate the stress that COVID puts particularly on fragile health systems,\u201d Hegemann told Reuters, adding Novartis hopes to work with health authorities, faith-based organisations and NGOs to eliminate big markups.\u201cWe are not targeting classical commercial distribution channels, but very direct channels, to influence that to the extent we can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Novartis\u2019s brand-name drugs have had little application in treating the new coronavirus, but Sandoz generics are among medicines commonly used to treat symptoms of those hospitalised.<\/p>\n

The list includes antibiotics amoxicillin, ceftriaxone, clarithromycin, vancomycin and levofloxacin, steroids dexamethasone, prednisone and prednisolone, gout treatment colchicine, heart failure drug dobutamine, antifungal fluconazole, blood thinner heparin, anti-diarrhea drug loperamide, reflux medicine pantoprazole and lung drug salbutamol.<\/p>\n

Its malaria generic, hydroxychloroquine, is not included after some COVID-19 trials concluded it did not work and the United States cancelled emergency authorisation, though Novartis continues to provide it for trials and on government requests.<\/p>\n

Hegemann did not give specifics on the drugs\u2019 eventual costs, compared to commercial prices. The drugs have been around for decades and are comparatively cheap to make.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AfricaPress-Kenya: Novartis\u2019s Sandoz division \u00a0will not make a profit on 15 generic drugs it is making available to developing countries to treat symptoms of COVID-19, the Swiss drugmaker said on Thursday. Novartis said it would provide medicines ranging from antibiotics and steroids to diarrhea pills to 79 countries on the World Bank\u2019s list of low- […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":11250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,2111,7,8],"tags":[1539,4672,1031],"class_list":["post-11254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-coronavirus-in-kenya","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","tag-covid-19","tag-novartis","tag-world-bank"],"yoast_head":"\nNovartis to provide 'no profit' Covid-19 drugs to low-income countries - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Novartis\u2019s Sandoz division \u00a0will not make a profit on 15 generic drugs it is making available to developing countries to treat symptoms of COVID-19\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/novartis-to-provide-no-profit-covid-19-drugs-to-low-income-countries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Novartis to provide 'no profit' Covid-19 drugs to low-income countries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Novartis\u2019s Sandoz division \u00a0will not make a profit on 15 generic drugs it is making available to developing countries to treat symptoms of COVID-19\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/novartis-to-provide-no-profit-covid-19-drugs-to-low-income-countries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-16T17:52:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2020\/07\/novartis_to_provide_5f0ff528e4f2a.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"518\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/novartis-to-provide-no-profit-covid-19-drugs-to-low-income-countries#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/novartis-to-provide-no-profit-covid-19-drugs-to-low-income-countries\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Novartis to provide ‘no profit’ Covid-19 drugs to low-income countries\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-16T17:52:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/novartis-to-provide-no-profit-covid-19-drugs-to-low-income-countries\"},\"wordCount\":322,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/novartis-to-provide-no-profit-covid-19-drugs-to-low-income-countries#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2020\/07\/novartis_to_provide_5f0ff528e4f2a.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"COVID-19\",\"Novartis\",\"World Bank\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"Coronavirus in kenya\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/novartis-to-provide-no-profit-covid-19-drugs-to-low-income-countries#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/novartis-to-provide-no-profit-covid-19-drugs-to-low-income-countries\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/novartis-to-provide-no-profit-covid-19-drugs-to-low-income-countries\",\"name\":\"Novartis to provide 'no profit' Covid-19 drugs to low-income countries - 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