Tsunami aid flown out
Essential medicines that have been donated by UK-based pharmaceutical companies to help survivors of the Asian tsunami disaster are here seen being prepared for loading onto a flight leaving London Heathrow.
At the airport warehouse are (from left): Andrew Curl, deputy director general of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI); Faisz Musthapha, high commissioner for Sri Lanka; Andrew Dunnett, president of the charity co-ordinating the pharmaceutical industry donations - International Health Partners (IHP) - and Hassan Sobir, high commissioner of the Maldives.
Eight companies from the UK pharmaceutical and medical supplies industries have donated £1.5m of essential medicines and supplies to emergency teams in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. The shipments have been pulled together by IHP in co-ordination with the in-country teams of the ministries of health and the WHO. The 65 pallets of airlifted medicines are sufficient to treat more than 50,000 people. As well as the medicines being airlifted in co-operation with IHP, many individual pharmaceutical companies have already made substantial donations either in cash or by providing medicines.