Partners

Mead Johnson

MEAD JOHNSON: A global leader in infant and children’s nutrition
(with excerpts from ‘The Quest to Survive: the Plight of MSUD patients in the Philippines’ by Dory Marco)

Mead Johnson Nutrition is a global leader in infant and children’s nutrition. The company is best known for the Enfamil® and Enfalac® families of infant formulas as well as for regional children’s nutritional products, including Enfagrow®, Enfapro®, Enfakid®, EnfaSchool®, and Sustagen® in Asia, and Choco Milk® and Cal-C-Tose® in Mexico and Latin America.

Mead Johnson was founded more than 100 years ago and has been committed, from its very beginning, to earning the trust of parents and health care professionals by offering scientific evidence of the benefits of our products. That commitment, driven by the pride and passion of its workforce of approximately 5,600 people, is evident today throughout the world. Mead Johnson manufactures and markets more than 70 products in over 50 countries in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, and operates major manufacturing facilities in every region where the company conducts business.

With the support of a global company Mead Johnson Philippines continues to innovate in science-based nutrition to nourish current and future generations.

A lifeline for children with MSUD
For the past thirteen years, Mead Johnson supply, free of charge, cans of MSUD Diet Powder formula monthly to support children with MSUD.

In a third world country like the Philippines, the majority of families with MSUD patients do not have the money needed to meet the medical needs of their children, including the special diet powder and special food. Many parents are minimum wage earners, and others are unemployed. Commercially prepared low protein foods such as biscuits and the like can only be availed through the courtesy of relatives residing in the US or Australia, as the high cost of these imported items and the added cost of freight and taxes make them too expensive for most. For example, a can of MSUD powder (400 gms) cost P2,500- 3,000 or $55-65 American dollars. At present, we are not receiving any subsidy from our government.

Dr. Carmencita Padilla, a pediatric geneticist and director of the Institute of Human Genetics (IHG) of UP-NIH, feeling the burden of the families with MSUD Children, tried to find ways of helping parents by networking with local formula companies and the Department of Health. Through her efforts, Mead Johnson Philippines, thru its Director for Corporate Affairs Mila Llorin and its Corporate Affairs Manager Judd Salas, committed to facilitate the donation of MSUD diet powder to affected children from their mother company based in the US. They have been providing the needed special diet milk for over three years now.

Extending support to patients with PKU and MMA
For over a year now, Mead Johnson Philippines has been faciliating the monthly donation of 12 cans of phenylalanine-free and iron-fortified dietary powder for infants and toddlers with phenylketonuria (PKU), another inborn metabolic disorder. For a time, too, Mead Johnson Philippines facilitated the donation of a special formula for IHG patients with MMA who was then admitted at the Philippine General Hospital. Hopefully, Mead Johnson will be able to include the MMA special milk in their donation package.