On Monday, Sanofi’s global health unit launched a new brand and fund as part of its goal to bring 30 essential medicines to 40 lower-income countries, more than half of which are in Africa.
The new brand called Impact will carry nine products for neglected diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis; six for anti-infectives, or drugs that prevent the spread of infections; and 15 for noncommunicable diseases, including for different types of cancer, and insulin glargine for diabetes.
Meanwhile, a new fund, also called Impact, will provide financial and technical support to entrepreneurs that can offer scalable solutions for health care delivery in the 40 countries identified by the company. These include most low-income countries as per the World Bank, except for Burkina Faso, Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mali, North Korea, and Sudan; as well as small island developing states such as Haiti and Tuvalu; and some Central, South, and Southeast Asian countries such as Tajikistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Cambodia.