Merck, PATH form partnership to fight causes of maternal mortality

Pharmaceutical company Merck (MSD) announced Monday it has "awarded a grant to PATH, a global health nonprofit, to identify game-changing technologies with the potential to save the lives of women during pregnancy and childbirth in low-resource settings," according to a Merck press release. Led by scientists from Merck for Mothers, "a new 10-year, half-billion-dollar initiative," and PATH, the "partnership, valued at $2.5 million and extending through Fall 2012, will integrate private- and public-sector expertise to help evaluate affordable and easy-to-use maternal health technologies that work in resource-poor settings" in order to "address the two leading causes of maternal mortality -- post-partum hemorrhage and preeclampsia -- as well as family planning," the release states (12/5).