Partnership efforts result in interruption of disease transmission in nine regions within five countries in Africa

• World Health Organization commends the MECTIZAN® Donation Program on its contribution to near-elimination of river blindness from the Western Hemisphere
• MSD has donated over one billion treatments to nearly 117,000 communities in Africa, Latin America and Yemen
• Longest running donation program of its kind aims to tackle a leading cause of preventable blindness

LONDON, United-Kingdom, October 11, 2012/ – Today on World Sight Day, 25 years after MSD (known as Merck in the U.S. and Canada) (http://www.msd.com) started the MECTIZAN® Donation Program (MDP), the company celebrates with partners important progress in the elimination of river blindness, one of the leading causes of preventable blindness worldwide. In October 1987, MSD made the decision to donate the medication MECTIZAN (ivermectin) for the treatment of river blindness (onchocerciasis) – as much as needed, for as long as needed – to eliminate the disease as a public health problem.  In 1998, Merck expanded the MDP to include the elimination of lymphatic filariasis (LF), in African countries and Yemen where it co-exists with river blindness.  World leaders come together to discuss the role of MDP in establishing a platform for disease control in a landmark event titled: ‘Disease Elimination in the 21st Century.’

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