Bristol-Myers funding to assist Indian health groups in fight against diabetes

Bristol-Myers Squibb, the global biopharmaceutical company, has announced it is offering financial support to health groups in India to help them tackle the country’s growing diabetes problem.
Through its charitable Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundatio, the firm is providing grants totalling £1.02 million to four Indian healthcare institutions in a bid to improve diabetes education, prevention and care in poor rural and urban areas.
The institutions include the All-India Institute of Diabetes and Research, the Mamta Health Institute for Mother and Child, Sanjivani Health and Relief Committee and Swasthya Diabetes Hospital, with the grants being made under Bristol’s ‘Together on Diabetes’ programme.
John Damonti, president of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundatio, said: “The grants we are making today will test new ideas about how diabetes control efforts can be best designed and implemented to help adults in a variety of settings.”
This move comes less than a month after the company announced plans to expand the Together on Diabetes initiative into China – the diabetes capital of the world – over the coming months.
According to the International Diabetes Foundation (IDF), India is only second to China in terms of total diabetes cases, with latest figures suggesting that more than 50 million people across the country are diabetic .