AEGiS-SFE: Donation launches HIV program

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Donation launches HIV program

San Francisco Examiner, May 5, 1999
Gregory Lewis and Ulysses Torassa of the Examiner Staff

A city HIV / AIDS program that will focus on education, prevention and awareness, especially for minorities, women and young gay men, was launched by Mayor Willie Brown. DuPont Pharmaceuticals is donating $1 million to the effort over the next five years.

The mayor hopes the program, which he announced Tuesday as another way to stem the spread of HIV and AIDS, will encourage other businesses to contribute a total of $5 million over the same time period.

Despite breakthroughs in AIDS research, treatment, education and prevention, Brown said: "There's been an increase in the number of people infected, particularly in communities of color. The education and information has not penetrated (there) the way it should have."

DuPont President Nicholas Teti, who participated in the program's announcement, said: "Adequate funding often turns a new idea into a successful idea. DuPont's $1 million grant sets the initiative on the path to success. We're inviting other businesses in San Francisco to help us raise $5 million."

Brown said at least two companies have expressed interest in contributing. AIDS activists weren't necessarily overjoyed by the news.

When word spread last year that DuPont's new AIDS drug Sustiva would cost much more than other drugs in its class, activists formed a Fair Price Coalition and went to the company's headquarters to try to persuade DuPont to reconsider.

They had little success, according to Linda Grinberg, a member of the coalition and a Los Angeles AIDS activist.

Teti acknowledged the controversy surrounding the price of Sustiva but said, "We felt that it was priced extremely fair."

City officials say the money raised from the program could make a lot of difference to their prevention programs, which now have an $11 million a year budget.
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