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In 2006, Sanofi-Aventis launched pilot programs to help improve diabetes disease management in developing countries, in conjunction with the NGO Handicap International, Sante Diabete Mali and other local NGOs in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Several projects were set up in 2007 in Burundi, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Nicaragua, Philippines and Thailand. The program aims to help local health care systems to manage the disease better, prevent the onset of complications and so avoid the subsequent need for surgical interventions such as amputation. Since the beginning of the program, Handicap International has trained 600 health professionals, who in turn have treated 3,000 patients.

The pilot projects address 4 primary issues:

• Primary prevention of diabetics in the population as a whole through a community approach focused on schools;
• Prevention of incapacitating complications at the level of primary and secondary health care among diabetic patients that includes support for patient education, training of nursing staff, and easier access to medicines;
• Care for people handicapped due to diabetics (amputees, hemiplegics, the visually-impaired, etc.) by implementing the multidisciplinary care network;
• Improving the epidemiological monitoring system for diabetes and its complications.