The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation will be expanding its Together on Diabetes initiative to China and India, pledging $15 million over five years to help these developing nations with rapidly growing numbers of type 2 diabetes patients.

India, which has 61.26 million people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (8.3% of the population), ranks second only to China (9.3%) in total cases and third behind the U.S. (10.9%) in terms of prevalence. By 2030, India will have 101.2 million people with type 2 diabetes, and China will have 129.7 million (12.1%), IDF projects.

“In keeping with a long legacy of addressing global health issues through innovative and sustainable philanthropic programs, Bristol-Myers Squibb and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation are pleased to expand our philanthropic work in type 2 diabetes to China and India, where the disease has become a significant public health concern,” said Lamberto Andreotti, CEO, Bristol-Myers Squibb. “We look forward to working with the Shanghai Charity Foundation to improve the management of type 2 diabetes in Shanghai.”

As part of the expansion, Together on Diabetes has awarded the Shanghai Charity Foundation (SCF) a grant of $522,797 over three years to create an efficient and effective community-based, block-by-block approach for managing type 2 diabetes in Shanghai, a mega-city of 23 million people. Working with the SCDC and the Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau, SCF will leverage existing city management systems and technology to build and pilot an integrated model of diabetes prevention and management that can be deployed in other Chinese cities.

“As their populations grow older and more sedentary, health authorities in China and India are seeing many of the same problems experienced by their Western counterparts, namely obesity and type 2 diabetes,” said John Damonti, president, Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and vice president of corporate philanthropy, Bristol-Myers Squibb. “What’s worse, we are seeing only the tip of the iceberg. For every patient in China or India who has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, there are several others who are undiagnosed or considered pre-diabetic. That is why Bristol-Myers Squibb and its Foundation are introducing to China and India the Together on Diabetes model developed in the United States and working with prestigious partners in both countries to address this growing public health issue.”

The additional $15 million commitment for Together on Diabetes builds upon more than a decade of work by the Foundation and its partners in China to reduce health disparities and fight serious diseases by strengthening community-based health care worker capacity and integrating medical care and community-based supportive services. The first Together on Diabetes grants in India and additional grants in China will be announced later.