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Bristol-Myers Squibb donates $1.17m to hepatitis C projects

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is to donate $1.17 million (£804,000) towards the prevention of hepatitis C as part of its Delivering Hope programme.

China, India and Taiwan will benefit from the money, which is being spent on education and awareness about the disease, plus studies of it, detection measures, care and treatment.

It will go to a number of enterprises in the countries, such as the Liver Disease Prevention and Treatment Research Foundation in Taiwan and the Shanghair Charity Foundation in China.

"The programmes these organisations propose exemplify our Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation mission of addressing health disparities in communities where the need is greatest," said John Damonti, president of the institution.

It is estimated that 170 million people around the world are infected with hepatitis C, with 94.5 million of these living in the Asia-Pacific region.

Last month, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced that it has entered a global collaboration with ZymoGenetics to develop a novel type-three interferon which is currently in phase-one trials, being studied for hepatitis C.