PHA-Exch> Drug firms agree to invest more in AIDS research-UN

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Vern Weitzel <vern.weitzel at gmail.com>
crossposted from: "[health-vn discussion group]" health-vn at cairo.anu.edu.au


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09327729.htm

Drug firms agree to invest more in AIDS research-UN

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 9 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on
Thursday that major pharmaceutical firms promised to invest more on
researching treatments for the AIDS virus and diagnostic procedures for
poorer regions.

The companies also agreed to invest more in prevention, including vaccines
and pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis, Ban said in a statement issued after
he met with top executives at pharmaceutical and diagnostic firms working on
AIDS and HIV, the virus that causes it.

"We noted that despite the gains, the epidemic continues to outstrip our
best efforts. Only one-third of those who need antiretroviral treatment in
low-and middle-income countries are getting it," he said.

"Each day, for every two people who are placed on antiretroviral treatment,
five more are infected. Collectively, we still have more work to do."

The senior executives Ban and other U.N. officials met with were from 17
companies, including Abbott Labs <ABT.N>, Boehringer Ingelheim,
GlaxoSmithKline <GSK.L>, Pfizer <PFE.N> and other top industry players.

Ban said the companies agreed to "invest further in research and development
of new HIV-related medicines adapted to resource-limited settings to be used
safely in children, adolescents, adults and pregnant women" -- in other
words, to try to make drugs available to people in poor environments.

"All participants agreed that increasing access to vaccines, diagnostics and
medicines is essential in scaling up prevention and treatment efforts," Ban
said.

One of the U.N. millennium development goals aimed at halving poverty by
2015 is to achieve universal access for HIV and AIDS treatment by 2010.

Some 33 million people were living with immunodeficiency virus infections in
2007, most of them in Africa, according to the latest U.N. reports on the
AIDS epidemic. The disease has killed an estimated 25 million people since
it was identified in the 1980s. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; editing by
Philip Barbara)
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