Singapore: German headquartered Merck has collaborated with Maharashtra University of Health Sciences and Directorate of Medical Education & Research in India to provide European accredited clinical diabetes management studies with more than 5000 medical students in 18 medical colleges of Maharashtra University as part of Merck Capacity Advancement Program (CAP) in Asia.

The course is European accredited and will be incorporated in the MBBS curricula of 18 medical colleges. It is aimed to build up the future diabetes health care capacity in Maharashtra.

Dr Stefan Oschmann, vice chairman and Deputy CEO of Merck said, "Merck is pleased to collaborate with Maharashtra University of Health Sciences and Directorate of Medical Education & Research as part of our commitment to building healthcare capacity and providing sustainable access to high-quality health solutions and safe medicines in India. It marks another step in our commitment to working with governments and other stakeholders in building healthcare capacity with a focus on non-communicable diseases in various countries in Asia-Pacific, Middle East Africa and Latin America."

Prof Dr Arun Jamkar, vice chancellor, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, MUHS- Nashik emphasized" It gives us immense pleasure to invite the stakeholders in the field of medicine and diabetes in Maharashtra in joint collaboration with DMER and Merck. This Diabetes education course aims to provide guidelines and clinical practice for prevention, diagnosis and management of diabetes and its complications for medical undergraduates of the 18 medical colleges in Maharashtra university."

Mr Rasha Kelej, Vice President, Head of Global Business Responsibility and Market Development, Merck Serono, emphasized, "The lack of financial means is not the only challenge but a scarcity of trained health care personnel capable to tackle the prevention, diagnosis and management of diabetes at all levels of the health care systems. Therefore Merck aims to address the current constraints in the health system to effectively manage diabetes and the need for developing workable strategies for ensuring timely and appropriate management with extensive linkage and support for enhancing the availability of trained manpower as part of our commitment to contributing towards the social and economic development of India and the rest of the Asian continent."