ACT Foundation –harma Partners AstraZeneca, Aventis Pharma Inc. –fizer Canada Honoured with Imagine's 2004 –New Spirit of Community– Partnership Award

Toronto, Ontario, September 20, 2004 — The Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation of Canada and its corporate health partners AstraZeneca, Aventis Pharma Inc. and Pfizer Canada are honoured to receive Imagine’s 2004 “New Spirit of Community” Partnership Award.

Presented by the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy in a ceremony this evening, the award celebrates the outstanding example of collaboration and action between the ACT Foundation and its pharma partners, demonstrating the power of partnership to find new ways to meet pressing needs and build healthy communities.

ACT’s core funding and resources are provided by AstraZeneca, Aventis Pharma Inc. and Pfizer Canada. This enables the ACT Foundation to bring the ACT High School CPR Program to Canadian high schools. Designed to empower all youth with the skills and knowledge to save lives, the ACT program teaches CPR and cardiovascular disease prevention to youth across Canada. By equipping schools with resources and guidance on program set up, teachers then are able to teach CPR to students as a mandatory part of the curriculum. This ensures a long term, self-sustaining program which reaches all youth, including those who do not have easy access or cannot afford to pay for a public course.

“This core funding provides ACT with the critical support it needs to tackle major challenges such as bringing the CPR program to high schools across Canada – a huge endeavour, that is so very important,” says Sandra Clarke, Executive Director of the ACT Foundation. “This unique collaborative approach has been key to our success in making a long term enhancement to the education system and is already resulting in saving lives.”

With the support of ACT’s corporate health partners and through its community-based model of local partnerships and support, ACT has raised the funds to donate over 15,000 CPR training mannequins to over 700 high schools across Canada. More than 500,000 students have been trained in the lifesaving skill of CPR.

“Saving lives is so important,” said Aventis’ Jean-Francois Leprince, speaking as Chair of the ACT Foundation Board of Directors. “We need as many people as possible to help in the fight against cardiovascular disease. Any initiative aimed at motivating our youth to take an interest in health matters is worthy of our industry’s efforts and commitment.”

About ACT
The ACT Foundation is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to establishing CPR as a mandatory program in every Canadian high school. ACT raises funds from community partners for CPR mannequins for schools and guides schools in program setup. ACT’s receives its core funding from companies in the research-based pharmaceutical industry: AstraZeneca, Aventis Pharma Inc. and Pfizer Canada. These companies are committed to ACT’s goal to empower Canadian youth to save lives.