eglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of about 20 communicable, often-debilitating conditions that affect more than 1.7 billion people in 150 countries around the world. These diseases – such as soil transmitted helminths (STH), dengue and leprosy – disproportionately impact the poorest and most vulnerable communities. NTDs have a considerable impact on the lives of the people they affect, contributing to significant morbidity and long-term loss of economic productivity.
In 2012, Johnson & Johnson joined with leading global health organizations to sign the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases, a landmark, first-of-its-kind collaboration, which has helped drive impressive progress in the control, elimination and eradication of NTDs in the decade since. In 2022, Johnson & Johnson reaffirmed its commitment in the global fight against NTDs, once again joining with the global community to sign the Kigali Declaration, building on the London Declaration to drive progress in support of the WHO’s 2030 roadmap.
Johnson & Johnson has been a committed partner in the fight against NTDs for more than 15 years, and we remain steadfast in our commitments, even amid disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. From the lab to last mile, we are continuing our work to deliver solutions for intestinal worms, also known as soil transmitted helminths (STH), and are exploring potential solutions for dengue and leprosy.
Our Focus Areas
Soil-Transmitted Helminths
Delivering Our Intestinal Worm Medicine to Children in Need
Dengue Fever
Advancing Early-Stage R&D for New Prevention and Treatment Methods
Leprosy
Exploring Shortened and Simplified Regimens to Help Improve Treatment
Our Enduring Commitment to Combat Intestinal Worms
Our Enduring Commitment to Combat Intestinal Worms
Johnson & Johnson has long worked to tackle intestinal worm, or soil transmitted helminths infections, which despite being treatable, are the most widespread NTD, impacting more than 1.5 billion people worldwide, including 835 million children. In 2006, we launched our medicine donation program and collaborated to launch the first program focused exclusively on reducing intestinal worms in school-aged children. In 2012, as part of our commitment to the London Declaration, we increased our annual donation from 50 million to 200 million doses each year and have since extended the program through 2025 and transitioned the donation program to a new chewable formulation of the medicine, allowing for ease of dosing for children as young as 1 year of age. To date, Johnson & Johnson has donated more than 2 billion doses of its medicine to help enable children to grow and thrive.
By the Numbers
Doses of our intestinal worm medicine donated since 2006
Doses of our medicine for intestinal worms donated each year
Countries receiving our intestinal worm medicine through our donation program
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2021 report is a powerful warning about the potentially devastating health effects of global warming. A warming climate allows the mosquito that carries dengue virus to spread further, potentially exposing billions more people to a disease that already infects up to 400 million each year and for which there are no therapeutics currently available.
The world urgently needs treatment and prevention options for dengue to counter this growing public health threat. Johnson & Johnson is making progress, accelerating the development of a new, early-stage compound with a novel mechanism of action that could potentially prevent and treat dengue caused by all serotypes of the virus.
Investing in Local Scientific Capacity In June 2022, Johnson & Johnson launched the first Satellite Center for Global Health Discovery in Asia at Duke-NUS in Singapore. This unique research collaboration brings together leading scientists in the Asia Pacific region with Johnson & Johnson to help stimulate the early-stage science, innovation and talent development needed to tackle flaviviruses, including dengue, yellow fever, Zika and other pandemic threats.
Enabling Research Johnson & Johnson, in partnership with WIPO Re:Search, has made its JumpstARter Library available to drug discovery researchers in order to identify and advance promising drug candidates to fight neglected infectious diseases. The library includes a diverse collection of 80,000 high-quality drug-like small molecules and compound fragments created to “jump-start” drug discovery collaborations.
Champions for Neglected Tropical Diseases
More than fifteen years ago, Johnson & Johnson committed to address the threat of intestinal worms, which are particularly damaging to the health, development and well-being of children. Since then, our donated medicine has helped countless children around the world grow and thrive.
— Martin Fitchet, M.D., Global Head of Global Public Health
It is imperative that we advance our science to meet the needs of today and those to come. Our breakthrough work in dengue signals what is possible when collaborative science is applied at the discovery phase and channeled toward great unmet need in public health.
— Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, M.D., Ph.D., Global Head of Global Public Health R&D
The new chewable formulation of our medicine to treat intestinal worms is of added value in allowing easier treatment for children as young as 1 year of age. Our donation helps children grow and thrive to lead healthier, more productive lives.
— Lynn Leonard, STH Program Lead, Global Public Health
Within our company, we recognize that more of the same won’t do. Instead, today’s evolving public health threats require us to undertake new and innovative approaches to achieve long-term impact for entire communities—not just individuals—in the world’s most vulnerable populations. This fight can only be won if we all work together.
— Marinx Van Loock, R&D Lead Emerging Pathogens, Global Public Health
By enabling basic research around NTDs, we are making a difference in identifying new targets and molecular templates that can be potentially developed into effective therapeutics. All of these efforts are contributing to our goal of being able to effectively treat and eliminated neglected tropical diseases
— Paul Jackson, Scientific Director, Global Public Health
The current multi-drug therapy for leprosy works; however, further simplifying and shortening treatment, developing alternative treatments in case of resistance to current leprosy therapy and being able to prevent transmission are what is needed to aid in elimination of leprosy in the world.
— Tine De Marez, Compound Development Team Leader, Global Public Health
