By Caroline Preston

Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical company, announced today that it will commit $200-million over five years to improve the health of women and children in poor countries.

Three-quarters of the commitment from the company, in New Brunswick, N.J., will be in the form of cash grants to nonprofit organizations; the rest will be medicines and other supplies.

The effort seeks to help achieve two of eight global anti-poverty goals set in 2000 by the United Nations: to reduce deaths among children and to improve maternal health worldwide by the year 2015.

With five years to go until the deadline, the United Nations is focusing on curbing death rates. While a study published this spring in the medical journal The Lancet found that maternal deaths have dropped significantly since 1980, the United Nations says that progress toward the mother and child health goals has still lagged behind some other antipoverty benchmarks and that achieving those two goals can help advance other objectives like eradicating extreme poverty.

Aiding Millions of People

As many as 120 million women and children could be helped by the donation each year, the company says. The United Nations says the commitment is the largest gift from a company to improve women and children’s health.

Johnson & Johnson will direct its money and medicines to four approaches:

Providing mobile technology for mothers. The company says that more than 15 million pregnant women and new mothers in six countries will receive free phone messages and calls from health mentors over five years.

Reducing intestinal worms in children. Johnson & Johnson plans to increase by fourfold its donations of mebendazole, a drug that treats worms in children.

Financing research and development. The company will step up efforts to develop new ways to reduce transmission of HIV from mothers to children and between adults, to advance tuberculosis treatment, and other research programs.

Promoting safe births. The company will expand such programs through peer education, upgraded health facilities, and other means.

Nonprofit groups that currently work with Johnson & Johnson will receive much of the money, the company says, but it will also seek out new organizations to support.