Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 27, 1994 TAG: 9407280072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Getting what could be the biggest drug donation ever into the planes required the speedy cooperation of industry, volunteer groups and federal regulators.
Lilly had been warehousing large amounts of extended-dose Ceclor, its expiration date nearing. Ceclor, the world's best-selling oral antibiotic, is familiar to many Americans as one of the pink drugs given to children for ear infections.
The company had gambled that the Food and Drug Administration would approve the higher dose quickly, but had gambled wrong. ``It just occurred to us that the best thing to do with this product is to respond to the need in Rwanda,'' said Lilly CEO Randall L. Tobias. ``This circumstance in Rwanda is almost beyond human scale.''
For Rwanda's thousands of refugees living in disease-infested squalor, a broad-spectrum antibiotic like Ceclor could be effective in fighting ailments including skin infections, soft tissue infections, dysentery, meningitis, measles and pneumonia. It is not, however, particularly effective against cholera, the most dire threat in the camps. Lilly had enough of the drug on hand to provide a full course of treatment for nearly 1.3 million people - a cache worth an estimated $60 million retail.
The broker in the Ceclor deal was a Georgia-based charity called MAP International, which for 40 years has collected and donated surplus medicine from American pharmaceutical companies and shipped it to relief workers around the world.
Lilly will be able to claim a tax deduction for the donation.
by CNB