Bristol-Myers Squibb expands diabetes scheme to China and India

Bristol-Myers Squibb is to reach out to diabetes patients in China and India via a new philanthropic initiative.

The company's charitable arm the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation will be expanding its previously US-only Together on Diabetes initiative to the Asian nations for the first time with a $15 million (9.66 million pounds) pledge.

Partnerships with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Shanghai Charity Foundation have already been confirmed, while the first Indian Together on Diabetes grants will be announced soon.

This comes in the same month that the company announced a $6 million expansion of the initiative in the US.

John Damonti, president of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and vice-president for corporate philanthropy at Bristol-Myers Squibb, said: "Several of the projects we are announcing today have the potential to have a significant and sustained impact on diabetes management as well as on policy and advocacy at the state and national levels."

Recently, the firm announced positive data from a phase III trial of dapagliflozin, an investigational diabetes compound developed in conjunction with AstraZeneca.