World NTD Day Japan Event Report

The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Japan (PMAJ) has co-sponsored the World NTD Day 2024. In addition, the NTD subgroup of the International Committee of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Japan (PMAJ) participated in the final judging of the "First Neglected Tropical Diseases Student Contest" on January 28, 2024 and the World NTD Day Online Event on January 30, 2024 as a member of the "World NTD Day, Japan Executive Committee".

Photos from the webinar

Every year, January 30 is the World Health Organization's (WHO) World Day of Neglected Tropical Diseases, a day to connect the world in remembrance of neglected tropical diseases. The theme of World NTD Day announced by WHO this year was "Unite. Act. Eliminate. The NTD subgroup of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Japan (PMAJ) has been participating in the planning stage of the event by "Unite" with Japanese NTD stakeholders.
This year's NTD Day event in Japan was planned by the students themselves, led by the NTDs Youth Group consisting of university students, and "Act" was created by Japanese NTD professionals who are usually involved in NTD work, bringing their expertise and support.

For the student contest held in preparation for NTD Day, we set up two categories: A category to present NTDs in an easy-to-understand manner in a video of 3 minutes or less, and B category to propose NTDs issues and what we can do in a total of 1,300 characters or less. This was a unique idea that could only be realized by students. The NTD subgroup members discussed and selected one of the most appealing entries in accordance with the message, "We want to deliver drugs and thoughts together," which was the criteria for the selection of the Pharmaceutical Cooperative Association Award.

Student Contest Final Judging

The final selection was made by having the applicants present their presentations, both onsite and online, on the five works in Category A and six works in Category B that passed the preliminary selection from among the 35 teams (79 applicants). The presentations by the students ranged from those that used YouTube to attract viewers to those that incorporated sign language to those that made use of their experiences of visiting developing countries.

The Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association Award went to a junior high school student from Tokyo Gakugei University International Secondary School. From their presentations, we sensed the possibility that Japan's advanced medical technology could not only help developing countries develop human resources and improve social infrastructure such as health, sanitation, and education, but also lead to ownership and friendly relations in developing countries in the future.

Final judging of the student contest

Scene of the final judging (judges' professors)

World NTD Day Online Event (January 30)

On January 30, 2024, the event consisted of three parts: a message from Japanese officials on the occasion of NTD Day, the award ceremony for the first Neglected Tropical Diseases Student Contest, and a question-and-answer session to learn about NTDs from NTD experts in an easy-to-understand format.

Click here to watch the World NTD Day 2024 webinar video.

Award Ceremony

The Grand Prize (A and B categories), U-18 Special Prize (A and B categories), Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association Award, and GHIT Award were announced, and the winners gave their comments.

Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association Award Winners
Mr. Hirono Ms. Miyazaki Ms. Kawasaki 3rd grade, Tokyo Gakugei University International Secondary School

In doing research for this contest, I learned about the disease dengue fever among the NTDs and remembered that the horror of dengue was very close to me when I lived abroad and that I could do nothing about it at that time. This time, we sent out our own ideas, so we were able to contribute in some small way, and it was a lot of fun working with my friends," commented Mr. Hirono.

Pharmaceutical Cooperative Award Ceremony (Mr. Hirono, representative of the winner, and Mr. Fujii of Astellas Pharma Inc. presenting the judging)

Teach us, Dr. Kunii

In a session moderated by GHIT Fund CEO Kunii, who is active in the world of global health, experts explained the NTD and answered questions from the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association about "what pharmaceutical companies are doing" to "Eliminate" the NTD. Pharmaceutical companies around the world provide medicines free of charge to "Eliminate" NTDs, but they do not stop at the factory; they also deliver medicines to remote areas in low-income countries where people in need live, and educate local medical staff to educate the target population about the disease and the significance of taking the medicines. The presentation also included a description of the local situation and how the company is fulfilling its responsibilities in collaboration with its many partners around the world, including educating local medical staff about diseases and the significance of taking medicines.

Explanation of efforts by a pharmaceutical company (Mr. Tobidan, Eisai)

In closing

The first challenge to promote the importance of NTDs control to the younger generation by giving shape to the students' ideas, with the cooperation of stakeholders in Japan for the World NTD Day, started in October last year and ended successfully.

NTD Youth's Association, GHIT Fund, DNDi Japan, and SDGs Promise Japan, who collaborated for the day, will introduce the NTD day. Articles from the with Planet newspaper are also available. Please refer to the linked articles from each organization.

Asahi Shimbun with Planet;.
Know about "Neglected Tropical Diseases," Students Make Appeal at First NTDs Contest

NTD Youth Association; report - Contest - Our project
report - Contest - Our project | NTDs Youth Association (ntds-youth-japan.org)

GHIT Fund
Events | GHIT Fund | Global Health Innovative Technology Fund

DNDi Japan; (ntds-youth-japan.org)
DNDi Japan; Participated in the World NTD Day 2024 Webinar

SDGs Promise Japan; Blog
Blog | SDGs Promise Japan (sdgspromise.org)

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