Multi-Region Initiatives

UNICEF – In 2022, Lilly and UNICEF announced an initiative to help improve health for 10 million children and adolescents living with or at risk of chronic NCDs through 2025*. Lilly committed $14.4 million in support of UNICEF’s life-saving work to address NCD risk factors, strengthen health systems and enhance the ability of health care workers to care for people in Bangladesh, Malawi, Nepal, the Philippines and Zimbabwe. The five countries selected have the potential to strengthen country-level health systems and models that provide care and support for children and adolescents with chronic conditions, including type 1 diabetes, congenital and rheumatic heart disease, sickle cell disease and chronic respiratory diseases (e.g., asthma). More than 400,000 people were impacted through UNICEF’s work during 2023, including clinicians, community health workers, district trainers, caregivers, children and adolescents.This four-year commitment reflects the respective efforts of Lilly and UNICEF to work toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals, specifically, SDG3, which aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being at all ages.

AMPATH – Lilly has provided support for the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH), which has been working for nearly 35 years in western Kenya to improve health for people in resource-limited settings. Lilly’s product donations in support of AMPATH Kenya total more than $245 million – including more than $31 million in medicines in 2023 – and are helping people living with cancer, diabetes and mental health disorders. Most recently, Lilly has supported AMPATH’s efforts to replicate their model of care in Puebla, Mexico, which has the potential to reach more than 14 million people by 2030. Lilly has committed support of more than $2.8 million to AMPATH Mexico.

Life for a Child – Since 2009, Lilly has provided more than 8.1 million vials and cartridges of insulin to support the Life for a Child program. Life for a Child provides support to children and youth with diabetes in resource-limited settings. This support includes insulin, delivery devices, monitoring supplies, medical care, diabetes education, complications screening and management, and advocacy. In 2021, Lilly announced plans to expand support for Life for a Child and increase access to care to approximately 150,000 children and youth annually by 2030. To facilitate the expanded support, we have increased our contribution of mealtime and basal insulins and reusable pens, as well as financial support for the costs associated with storing, packing and shipping to countries in collaboration with Direct Relief. In 2023, more than 50,000 children and youth were supported by Life for a Child with Lilly insulin.

Cold Chain Initiative – In early 2023, Lilly and Direct Relief announced a new initiative to expand access to medicines in low-income countries and LMICs by expanding medical cold chain capacity. With Lilly’s $1.15 million in funding, Direct Relief procured and installed 151 refrigeration units across 18 countries for 85 Life for a Child supported medical facilities in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and South Asia. In addition to supporting Life for a Child, this initiative will strengthen health care systems by increasing cold-chain storage so that more health care facilities will have the ability to store other cold chain pharmaceuticals such as injectable therapies, cancer products or vaccines.

Africa

The Max Foundation Humanitarian PACT for Advanced Breast Cancer Program – In early 2024, Lilly and The Max Foundation announced an initiative to provide access to Verzenio for advanced breast cancer patients in Kenya. Lilly’s support includes the provision of product as well as funding to The Max Foundation to establish the infrastructure, implementation and operation of the program.

Tshwane Insulin Project (TIP) – Lilly engaged with the University of Pretoria in South Africa to support a research project aimed at initiating and titrating insulin in type 2 diabetes patients in primary health care. The TIP project implemented an intervention led by nurses and supported by community health care workers and doctors. The project demonstrated that patients can be safely initiated on insulin in primary care settings. Results show that TIP patients have achieved HbA1C reductions of more than 3%. In addition, anecdotal evidence shows that the overall HbA1C control of patients in the Tshwane district is better than other districts in the province with health care officials attributing this to the exceptional training provided to general practitioners, nurses and community health workers during the project.

Asia

Linking to Care (LTC) – The LTC project in Chennai, India, uses tuberculosis (TB) as an entry point to start screening patients for diabetes and hypertension. The program also screens patients’ family members for TB, diabetes and hypertension. Working with community health workers, the LTC project has proven that integrated model of care for patients with a communicable disease like TB and noncommunicable diseases is possible. This model has proven to be efficient, made care more accessible to patients in resource-limited settings and provided valuable lessons for effectively managing care for chronic diseases holistically.  

Action for Diabetes (A4D) – Lilly provides support to A4D to develop and roll out a HelloType1 online educational platform to support type 1 diabetes community in seven countries across South-East Asia. In addition, A4D supports youth living with type 1 diabetes in Laos with human and analog insulins provided by Lilly. 

Latin America

Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) in Mexico – Lilly supported the Carlos Slim Foundation and the Mexican Society for Public Health in a five-year effort, which concluded in December 2023, to improve outcomes for pregnant women with gestational diabetes and their babies. The approach offered a better, less expensive way to perform an oral glucose tolerance test to screen for gestational diabetes and help women who test positive avoid complications during pregnancy. The work delivered several important outcomes, including documenting for the first time the prevalence of gestational diabetes in Mexico at a national level (14.3%), identifying three subtypes of the disease, and developing an innovative artificial intelligence-based prediction model for gestational diabetes which is present in 455 health centers. Over 3,500 physicians, nurses and community health workers have undergone training centered on maternal and childcare. As an outcome of this program, more than 1.2 million individuals were positively impacted in 2023.  

Expanding Comprehensive Diabetes Care Model across Mexico and U.S. – Lilly is supporting Clinicas del Azúcar and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on their six-year effort to validate and expand a comprehensive diabetes care model for underserved patients with the goal of improving health over the long term. The efficacy of the model of care has been validated, and Clinicas del Azucar has leveraged this evidence to significantly expand across Mexico with 39 clinics, benefiting more than 340,000 people to date and saving nearly $925 million by helping patients avoid complications associated with diabetes. In addition, Lilly is supporting Clinicas del Azucar’s model for further expansion into the United States to provide low-cost, improved diabetes management and care with the potential to reach 1 million underserved Latinx patients by 2030 in Texas and other border states. 

North America

Diabetes Impact Project – Indianapolis Neighborhoods (DIP-IN) – Lilly committed $12 million to the DIP-IN project focused on three Indianapolis communities predominantly of color with high diabetes prevalence. The goal of DIP-IN was diabetes prevention and control. The project, launched in 2018, leverages resident steering committees to lead neighborhood-based health promotion initiatives aimed at expanding access to health-supporting resources and improving overall health for all residents. DIP-IN has played a role in nearly 50 community initiatives so far. The project includes both neighborhood- and clinic-based community health workers (CHWs), to help identify people living with or at-risk of developing diabetes so they can be connected to quality care. The project is led by Indiana University Richard M Fairbanks School of Public Health, along with other partners. Since the project began, more than 600 people living with diabetes have worked with DIP-IN CHWs to address their medical and social needs, resulting in a significant reduction in HbA1c levels.  

Lilly supported the convening of a CHW Policy Forum, comprised of key local, state and national organizations. The CHW Policy Forum has worked to elevate the essential role of CHWs as part of a resilient health care system and helped to shape a policy agenda that supports the long-term sustainability of the CHW workforce. These efforts led to a white paper, Integration of Community Health Workers for a More Resilient U.S. Healthcare System, which was presented to policymakers during a session of the National Conference of State Legislators Annual Legislative Summit in August 2023. 

Direct Relief Fund for Health Equity – In 2021, we announced our commitment of $5 million over five years to Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity as a component of our Racial Justice Commitment. Through this fund, U.S. health centers, free and charitable clinics, and other community-based organizations and educational institutions are offered the opportunity to apply for grants from Direct Relief of up to $250,000 annually. Direct Relief makes grants aimed at strengthening the capacity of recipient organizations to provide high-quality, culturally appropriate health care while focusing on social determinants of health for the underserved populations. Lilly’s funding has facilitated Direct Relief to support 12 awardees to date.

See important information about our Sustainability report.