February 15, 2021
“World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day” (World NTD Day) was launched on January 30, 2020 to increase an awareness for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). January 30 is the anniversary of the 2012 London Declaration on NTDs, the largest international public-private sector partnership to date to eliminate NTDs. Eisai, together with twelve other global pharmaceutical companies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. and U.K. governments, the World Bank, and governments from NTDs-endemic countries, pledged its support to the London Declaration in 2012.
This year marked the second annual World NTD Day and more than 300 global partners including Eisai came together to celebrate hard- earned progress and take action to tackle NTDs.
As one of the activities for raising awareness, “Light Up the World” for the World NTD day was held on January 30, 2021. 65 most iconic landmarks and monuments such as Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italy), Great Wall of China (China) and Giza Pyramids (Egypt) in 23 countries lit up in orange and purple to raise awareness of NTDs. Eisai took part in “Light Up the World” event by sponsoring the light up of Tokyo Tower, an iconic landmark in Japan.
Please watch “Light Up the World” video.
In addition to Tokyo Tower, the light up event also took place in Nagasaki, Japan.
Eisai has been actively involved in the elimination of NTDs by providing diethylcarbamazine (DEC tablets), one of the lymphatic filariasis (LF) treatments, for free via the WHO for elimination of LF, and collaborating with global partners on research and development of new treatments for other NTDs such as mycetoma and Chagas disease. We have proudly supplied more than 2 billion DEC tablets for free to 28 LF endemic countries. LF elimination was achieved in Egypt, Kiribati, Thailand and SriLanka out of 28 countries.
About NTDs:
NTDs include 20 diseases which affect more than 1.7 billion people living in the poorest and most marginalized communities worldwide. These diseases cause not only cause blindness or disability but also disfigure people taking away their health, chances of staying in school and working. In the worst cases, NTDs may also result in death.
