"Meiji provides 140,000 TB patients in low income countries with anti-tuberculosis drug Kanamycin."

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), tuberculosis (TB) causes the death of one person every 18 seconds¹. Estimates suggest that there are about 10 million people suffering from tuberculosis every year worldwide, of whom 5%, that is, about 500,000 patients have multidrug-resistant tuberculosis⁴.

Lower-income countries with an annual Gross National Product per capita less than US$755 contain 42% of the world’s population². 65% of the TB cases worldwide can be located in these countries, as well as 71% of deaths caused by TB². According to the World Bank, TB will cost about $1 trillion to $3 trillion in the world’s poorest countries by 2027¹.

In March 2020, Meiji Holdings’ annual revenue was $11.5 billion⁵. In 2010, the Kanamycin drug by Meiji was approved by the Global Drug Facility (GDF) as an anti-tuberculosis drug^3;p17. A vial of 4ml solution for injection of Kanamycin is available to the GDF at a price of $2.58^3;p16.

In an effort to improve access to pharmaceuticals in developing countries, Meiji supplies Kanamycin to patients suffering from multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis⁴. In a collaboration with the Stop TB partnership⁶, Meiji has supplied Kanamycin to patients suffering from TB in remote areas of Asia and Africa⁴. Since 2011, Meiji has provided approximately 140,000 patients with Kanamycin through this United Nations project⁴.

Meiji’s efforts to provide access to Kanamycin is a laudable initiative that can save thousands of lives all over the world. The company has provided people in lower-income countries with the necessary medicines to fight the disease that has already claimed many lives.

With the right investment companies having a positive impact on the planet are able to flourish. Our community forms part of that mission by measuring their impact.