Eli Lilly and Company announced it intends to donate more than 800,000 vials of insulin to the International Diabetes Federation’s Life for a Child Program, providing free life-saving medicine to as many as 24,000 children who currently have no access to diabetes treatment.
The initial focus of the donations will be to help children with diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa.
This donation will allow the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) to expand its work meaningfully over the next four years in at least nine of the poorest countries on the continent.
Lilly made the announcement at this time to commemorate the theme of this year’s World Diabetes Day (November 14) — diabetes in children and adolescents.
“Diabetes is emerging as one of the most serious health problems of our time, and children with diabetes in the developing world are particularly vulnerable,” said Dr. Carlos Paya, vice president, Lilly Research Laboratories and leader of Lilly’s Global Diabetes and Endocrine Platform.
The Life for a Child Program provides access to care, education and life-saving medicines and supplies to support children with diabetes in some of the poorest countries around the world. The program was established by IDF in partnership with Diabetes Australia-NSW and HOPE worldwide.
The program currently supports 1,100 children and works with diabetes centers in 18 countries to provide clinical care and diabetes education.
“For any child with diabetes, having access to insulin, a life-saving and life-sustaining medication, should be a right not a privilege,” said Dr. Martin Silink, President of the International Diabetes Federation. “This donation from Lilly is an incredible first step that so many children with diabetes and their families in the developing world so desperately need.”
Lilly is already a major supporter of the Life for a Child Program through contributions from a partnership between the Lilly Foundation and Rotary International, as well as individual employee contributions that have helped sustain care for more than 200 children over the last five years.
Source: Eli Lilly and Company, USA