Sanofi-Aventis launches programmes to fight childhood cancers

Sanofi-Aventis has announced that, with World Cancer Day to take place on February 4th 2007, it has assessed its programmes running in a number of developing and newly industrialised countries involved in the fight against childhood cancers.

Together with the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), the company has presented its first interim report on the programme that was first launched in 2004, with 26 projects running in 16 countries with constraints on available resources, such as Bangladesh and Vietnam.

Jean-Francois Dehecq, chairman of Sanofi-Aventis, commented that a key role of pharmaceutical companies is the identification of new research areas and means of making effective treatments more widely available to patients.

“Our corporate sponsoring action enables us to go a step further and construct, with UICC, a programme which encourages initiatives in countries where paediatric oncology is less advanced,” he said.

He added that these schemes promote an exchange in experience and grant financial support to assist in the narrowing of excessive differences in treatment between nations and foster global solidarity.

Earlier this month, Sanofi-Aventis reported the results of the phase III clinical trial investigating the use of orally administered anticancer agent S-1, which showed the risk of death early stage gastric cancer to be reduced by 32 per cent when compared to sole treatment with surgery.