The Merck-Praziquantel donation program, which will cover a ten-year period, was agreed with WHO in April 2007 and will provide for 200 million tablets of Cesol®600 with a value of approximately 80 million US-dollars. The assistance program for combating neglected tropical diseases focuses on countries of sub-Saharan Africa, where a majority of the approximately 200 million people infected with schistosomiasis live. Particularly children are affected by this worm disease with severe developmental disorders or suffer from its long-term consequences. With Merck’s drug donation about 27 million children can be treated over the period of ten years.

Schistosomiasis is the second most prevalent tropical disease in Africa after malaria and is of great public health and socio-economic importance in the developing world.
Schistosomiasis continues to be a major public health problem as more than 200 million people are infected. Almost 85% of those infected live in sub-Saharan Africa. Affected are mostly children of school age, between 6 and 15 years, but other high-risk groups include women of child-bearing age, farmers and fishermen. While the disease results in approximately 200,000 deaths annually, its chronic nature reduces the capacity of those infected to work. In children it causes anemia, stunting and a reduced ability to learn.

Praziquantel was co-developed 30 years ago by Merck KGaA and Bayer in collaboration with WHO. It is an effective treatment of schistosomiasis infection with a favorable safety profile, including use in pregnancy, and is on the list of WHO Essential Medicines.
Praziquantel is a safe and efficacious drug, which, through regular and periodic treatment, especially in children of school age, prevents the development of morbidity and long-term disability. Praziquantel is good drug for the strategy of preventive chemotherapy where populations infected or at risk of infection or morbidity due to worm diseases can be treated for all these infections with a combination of safe and effective drugs, notably albendazole and ivermectine that are already donated by other companies

Under the provision of the Merck-WHO partnership, 200 million tablets containing 600 mg praziquantel and available under the trademark Cesol® 600 will be produced by Merck Mexico. Whereas costs for manufacture, quality control and shipping are covered by Merck, local distribution and administration to schoolchildren will be organized by WHO and its member states.
 
In September 2000, 189 Heads of State adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, which was then translated into a roadmap setting out goals to be reached by 2015. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) build on agreements made at United Nations conferences in the 1990s and represent commitments from both developed and developing countries.
The Millennium Goals include challenges for rich and poor countries alike. They set targets for developing countries to reduce poverty and hunger, and to tackle ill health, gender inequality, lack of education, lack of access to clean water, and environmental degradation. The MDGs also recognize potential contributions from developed countries in the form of trade, assistance, debt relief, as well as access to essential medicines and technology transfer.
With the adoption of the World Health Assembly resolution 54.19 in 2001, to provide regular treatment to at least 75 percent of children of school age who are at risk of morbidity due to helminthic infections by 2010, the member countries acknowledged the serious burden imposed on poor and at-risk populations by schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths. The member countries further pledged to improve the health of those at risk through deworming programs and to provide better sanitation for their populations.