USIA Washington File - 7 May 1999
Jim Fisher-Thompson
The company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Charles Heimbold Jr., told a news conference at the National Press Club May 6 that the money would help fight HIV/AIDS in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland.
Pointing out that "HIV/AIDS is taking a devastating toll on the people of sub-Saharan Africa -- a region accounting for more than four out of five AIDS deaths in the world" -- Heimbold said the grant intends to serve "as a catalyst for change" and spur similar initiatives by U.S. businesses.
Heimbold explained that the $100 million "Secure the Future" program is a public/private partnership which intends to expand medical research -- focusing on women and children -- while providing hard-hit areas in southern Africa with resources to improve community education and patient support.
A United Nations document distributed at the press conference noted that last year 70 percent of all new HIV/AIDS infections in the world occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. In South Africa alone 3.5 million people now carry the killer virus and in Botswana 36 percent of pregnant women are infected with the deadly disease.
Heimbold emphasized that "as one of the world's great pharmaceutical companies and a major developer and manufacturer of medicines for treatment of HIV/AIDS, we feel a moral obligation to take action against this grave situation in a manner consistent with our mission to extend and enhance human life."
Bristol-Meyers Squibb currently manufactures several AIDS drugs under the brand names Zerit and VIDEX. Called "nucleoside analogs," they inhibit the AIDS virus from multiplying in some patients. The company also manufactures and markets Megace, Fungizone and TAXOL, drugs that respectively address: appetite and weight loss, fungus growth in the mouth, and a form of AIDS-related cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma.
Heimbold told journalists that "Secure the Future" has two main components: first, work by the Bristol Myers HIV Research Institute "to develop model programs for the management of HIV/AIDS appropriate for the five (specified) African nations." The research will be done in conjunction with Morehouse University Medical School, Baylor College of Medicine, the Harvard University AIDS Institute, the Medical University of Southern Africa (MEDUNSA) and other African schools of medicine. The money will also be used to fund the training of African physicians in Africa and in the United States, as well as provide local training for healthcare professionals. Fellowships also will be given to U.S. physicians "to teach and help build capacity in the five countries," Heimbold said.
The second component in the program will support a broad-based outreach and education effort aimed at strengthening community-based organizations work in helping women and children cope with the disease.
"Today the prospect for women and children with HIV/AIDS in Africa are bleak," Heimbold said. "Often they depend on others for medical, financial and social support and home care. Indeed, before this press conference I was speaking to Grace Mnguni [a South African community AIDS worker who attended the press conference on behalf of her organization 'Friends for Life']; and she told me that sometimes these women just need someone who is sympathetic to talk to, a shoulder to lean on."
By funding the program for southern Africa, Heimbold said "we are trying to do our part to make the African Renaissance flourish" while bringing comfort and hope for a cure to millions of people on the continent.
Speaking over a satellite hookup from Johannesburg, Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of the UNAIDS program, described the drug company's program as "a truly ground breaking initiative" in battling HIV/AIDS -- now regarded as the greatest threat to political and economic stability on the continent.
"We at UNAIDS are convinced," he stressed, that "the corporate sector has so much to offer when it come to fighting this disease, not only in financial terms and supporting research, but we can learn a lot from the business marketing approach for use in our AIDS prevention and education efforts."
Striking an optimistic chord, Piot said UNAIDS is convinced that "we can turn the tide on HIV/AIDS in Africa, but it will require a partnership" between, government, the private sector and communities. "We cannot do business as usual and win against this disease."
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