(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroonian patients suffering from chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases or diabetes will from now on pay less for their treatments. This is the result of an agreement recently signed by the Cameroonian ministry of health and the Swiss pharmaceutical laboratory Novartis, official sources revealed.

Thanks to the agreement, the Swiss laboratory will launch its program for low-income countries. This program gives access to chronic non-communicable diseases’ drugs at $1 per treatment each month, transport, insurance and taxes excluded.

Cameroon thus become the 6th country to benefit from this program launched in 2015 after Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda, Pakistan and Uganda. The first treatments in the framework of this program are already available in Cameroon’s western region, Novartis emphasized.

According to stats from the world health organization (WHO), 30% of deaths in Cameroon are due to chronic diseases.

 BRM