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news.GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has set up a new $330,000 facility at its Nashik site in India to the manufacture of albendazole, part of a combination treatment used within the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Programme to eliminate lymphatic filariasis (LF).
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The new facility will deliver an additional 300 million treatments of albendazole per year. The global programme to eliminate LF began in 2000, under which more than 1.9 billion treatments have been given to over 570 million people in 48 of the 83 countries with endemic LF.
Andrew Witty, CEO of GSK, said: “Through this investment in India we are able to focus on one of the largest areas at risk from LF and support the Indian Government’s current efforts to control and eliminate this crippling tropical disease.”
One third of the worldwide more than 1.3 billion people that are at risk of disability and disfigurement caused by LF live in India, affecting the Indian economy which exceed $840m every year due to treatment costs, reduced working time and lost productivity.
The Nashik facility could save the Indian health system an estimated $30m in treatment costs and improve lives of 550 million people in India who live at risk of developing this debilitating condition, the company said.
The technology for this plant, which accounts for half of GSK’s annual manufacturing capacity for the LF programme, was transferred from Cape Town and production started in August 2009 with the first consignment of 15 million albendazole tablets supplied to WHO on December 23, 2009.
The Nashik facility is expected to deliver 300 million tablets in 2010.