Merck collaborates with universities to build diabetes and thyroid dysfunction healthcare capacity in Asia

Merck, a leading company for innovative and top-quality high-tech products in healthcare, life science and performance materials, in collaboration with Maharashtra University and University of Indonesia is introducing European Accredited Clinical Diabetes management for more than 5000 medical and pharmacy students of both universities as part of Merck Capacity Advancement Program (CAP) in Asia.

The 5-year-program has been developed by EXCEMED – Excellence in Medical Education and is accredited by the European Accreditation Council of Continuous Medical Education (EACCME). The course will be taught by European and local Diabetes and Thyroid experts.

Stefan Oschmann, Vice Chairman and Deputy CEO of Merck said: “We’re excited about this partnership as it allows us to launch our Capacity Advancement Program in India and Indonesia and help provide sustainable access to quality health solutions and medicines in the countries. It marks another step in our commitment to working with governments and other stakeholders in building healthcare capacity with a focus on non-communicable diseases in various countries in Asia-Pacific, Middle East Africa and Latin America.”

Prof. Mahdi Jufri, Dean of Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Indonesia, said: “In recent years, we have seen a rapid rise in type 2 diabetes across all age groups in Indonesia and Asia–Pacific region, therefore there is an urgent need to develop accredited teaching programs for health sciences students so that diabetics treatment must be handled by holistic approach with other primary health care providers besides medical doctor, such as: pharmacists, nurses, and public health.”

Rasha Kelej, Head of Global Business Responsibility and Market Development at Merck’s biopharmaceutical business Merck Serono, said: “Our Capacity Advancement Program is part of Merck responsibility agenda that demonstrates our commitment to the global social and economic development. Supporting diabetes and thyroid education will contribute significantly to improving awareness, early diagnosis and prevention of the diseases. Before Indonesia and India, we’ve kicked off the 5-year-program successfully in Africa and will further expand it to other African, Asian, Middle Eastern and Latin American countries in 2015 in order to establish Merck Africa-Asia platform for global health.”

Prof. Dr Arun Jamkar, Vice Chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, emphasized” It gives us immense pleasure to invite the stakeholders in the field of medicine and diabetes in Maharashtra In joint collaboration with DMER and Merck, this Diabetes education course aims to provide guidelines and clinical practice for prevention, diagnosis and management of diabetes and its complications for medical undergraduates of the 18 medical colleges in Maharashtra university.”

Based on its long experience in diabetes management, which began in 1957 with the development of metformin, Merck seeks to raise awareness of diabetes by supporting the healthcare system to prevent, diagnose and manage the condition effectively. As part of the Merck Capacity Advancement Program, by end of 2015, more than 5,000 medical students in partnership with  African universities such as University of Nairobi, Makerere University, Namibia University and University of Ghana, in addition to Asian universities such as  Maharashtra university, India and University of Indonesia will benefit from European-accredited clinical diabetes and chronic diseases management training, which is seeking to equip them with skills to avert the diabetes epidemic. Merck is planning to target more than 15,000 students by the end of 2018 expanding to more Universities in the developing countries.