Bayer HealthCare donates antibiotics to help people in Zanzibar

Bayer HealthCare has provided a donation of antibiotics to the charity group Project Hope UK, which will help tens of thousands of people in Zanzibar.

The company is offering more than 7,000 units of ciprofloxacin tablets, which are used to treat many bacterial conditions including respiratory, urinary tract, gastrointestinal and abdominal infections.

They have been given to the Ministry of Health in Zanzibar and will be provided to the Mnazi Mmoja Hospital – which serves one-fifth of the total population of the country – as well as various rural health facilities.

It is expected that this initiative will help to improve healthcare in underserved communities for as many as 40,000 patients.

Professor Wolfgang Plischke, head of Bayer HealthCare, said: "We aim to make our products accessible to as many people as possible, regardless of their income or where they live."

This comes after the firm reported positive data from a phase III trial of its new prostate cancer drug radium 223 dichloride earlier this week.