Johnson & Johnson announced the launch of Every Mother, Every Child, a comprehensive, five-year, private-sector effort to improve the health of women and children in developing countries. The initiative supports the United Nations’ April 2010 call for a renewed effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reducing mortality in women and children by 2015.

Every Mother, Every Child aims to help as many as 120 million women and children each year over the next five years, and represents a significant commitment of grants, medicine donations, research and development. The effort includes treatments for intestinal worms, health information for pregnant women over existing mobile phones, research and development of new medicines for HIV and tuberculosis, and efforts focused on enhancing birth safety and improving health.

The announcement supports the Global Strategy on Women’s and Children’s Health, and is being made in conjunction with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit, to be held September 20-22 in New York. The Summit, which is expected to close to 150 heads of state and corporate and NGO leaders, will call on governments, non-profits and businesses to accelerate progress toward all MDGs. The Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health will be unveiled on Wednesday, September 22.

Johnson & Johnson’s Every Mother, Every Child aims to increase life expectancy and quality-of-life for women and children in the developing world. Our goal is to reach over 50 countries through our philanthropic programs focused on maternal and child health.

Johnson & Johnson currently partners with more than 200 organizations to improve the health of women and children around the world and health ministries in such countries as China, Brazil, India, the Philippines and Vietnam. In the last decade, Johnson & Johnson and its operating companies have provided more than $4.3 billion in grants, product donations and patient assistance that have touched the lives of men, women and children throughout the world.