HIV/AIDS

January 01, 2004

Few prepared

Only a fifth (21%) of the 100 largest corporations have workplace policies and programmes on HIV/AIDS, according to a recent report by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. It also maintains that a wide variation exists in the specific HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation programmes by transnational companies, with differing coverage provided to employees and their dependents. The report, which was jointly published with UNAIDS on November 17, presents results from the first ever global survey of transnational corporations’ responses to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, a separate survey from the World Economic Forum’s Global Health Initiative reveals that a fifth (21%) of businesses feel that HIV will have a serious impact on their operations. The study finds that fewer than a tenth (6%) of businesses have formally approved written HIV policies and only 16% provide information about risks of infection. The main business costs are identified as lower productivity, higher absenteeism, harder recruitment, more training and growing medical expenses. WEF concludes that the private sector response to HIV/AIDS is as inadequate as that of governments. The Business and HIV/AIDS: Who me? report was released on December 1 and is based on a survey of 8,000 businesses in 103 countries. Contact Nicolas Bovay, UNRISD, on 00 41 22 917 1143 (http://www.unrisd.org); Mark Adams, World Economic Forum, on 00 41 22 869 1212 (http://www.weforum.org)

Anti-AIDS abetting

Former US President, Bill Clinton, has brokered an agreement with four pharmaceutical companies – Ranbaxy Laboratories, Cipla, Matrix Laboratories and Aspen Pharmacare Holdings – to make low cost antiretroviral drugs available to treat AIDS in the developing world. The deal, announced on October 27, could cut the cost of a widely used cocktail of three AIDS drugs by about a third from 55 US cents to 38 cents a day. Contact Seema Ahuja, Ranbaxy Laboratories, on 00 91 11 26002075 (http://www.ranbaxy.com)

Steps forwards and back

GlaxoSmithKline announced on October 16 that it is to reduce further the not-for-profit prices of its HIV/AIDS medicines for qualifying countries and organisations. The reductions have been made possible by improvements in the manufacturing process and the economies of scale achieved. GSK has also extended the voluntary license granted to Aspen Pharmacare, sub-Saharan Africa’s largest generics company for the manufacture and sale of anti-retrovirals. The previous license covers only the public sector in South Africa and Zimbabwe. GSK is now including both the public and private sectors and all countries in the sub-Saharan region.

Meanwhile, also on October 16, the South African Competition Commission decided that GSK had contravened the Competition Act of 1998, following a complaint from a US-based AIDS charity. GSK was found to have denied a competitor access to an essential facility, priced products excessively and engaged in an exclusionary act. Contact Rae McDonald, GlaxoSmithKline, on 020 8047 5520 (http://www.gsk.com)

Blitzing Europe
[b]Viacom is extending a multi-million dollar HIV/AIDS awareness campaign to Europe by using its media brands, such as MTV, Paramount and Nickelodeon, to promote health education. The Staying alive campaign is believed to be the first promotional collaboration between regional subsidiaries. Viacom has partnered with the US-based Kaiser Family Foundation and Britain’s National AIDS Trust on the campaign. Awareness-raising initiatives by Viacom companies will include:

  • public service announcements on MTV and in 200 UCI cinemas;
  • leaflets in more than 700 Blockbuster video stores;
  • advertising space on UK buses and the London Underground;
  • communication campaigns in Africa and the Caribbean run in partnership with the BBC World Service Trust.

Contact Merigan Twelves, Blockbuster, on 020 7734 4455 (http://www.blockbuster.co.uk)

Secure the future

Bristol-Myers Squibb announced on November 27 that it is allocating 630m worth of new programme grants as part of the next phase of Secure the future. Understood to be the largest corporate commitment to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa, the grants form part of an ongoing 6118m commitment made to the initiative, by both Bristol-Myers Squibb and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. The initiative aims to develop sustainable models for community outreach and education, as well as medical research and care in areas where resources are limited. Contact Caroline Almeida, Bristol-Myers Squibb, on 020 8572 7422 (http://www.bms.com)

Coke AIDS life

The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation is supporting the 46664 initiative to respond to AIDS in Africa. Coke is encouraging people to make donations by calling a special telephone number, or logging onto Coca-Cola websites. A ground-breaking 46664 music concert took place on November 29 in Cape Town, spearheaded by the Nelson Mandela Foundation. (46664 was Nelson Mandela’s prison number when he was held captive on Robben Island). Contact Sonya Soutus, Coca-Cola, on 00 1 404 676 2121 (http://www.coca-cola.com)

in brief

The Global Reporting Initiative launched a set of key performance indicators for HIV/AIDS reporting on November 18. Contact Alyson Slater, GRI, on 00 31 20 531 0000 (http://www.globalreporting.org)

Editorial Comment

December 1 was World AIDS Day. A useful peg to hang a moment’s reflection on the shocking statistics: 40 million infected with HIV around the world, up five million in just 12 months, with one in four Southern Africans now infected. The numbers become truly terrifying if the disease takes hold in India (population 850 million) and China (1.3 billion). Unlike the other big killers, which tend to attack the very young, the old and the weak, HIV/AIDS goes for the active, productive population. That makes it a big business issue. And in the worst affected countries, truckers driving companies’ goods to market are a big vector in transmission.

Arguably too much attention has focused on the drug pricing policies of pharma companies, with little mention that high prices paid by western health care systems have funded one of the fastest and most effective research programmes ever. Belatedly they have moved on developing world pricing, so attention can now focus more on the rickety health care systems which are a harder barrier to overcome in getting help where it’s needed.

What about companies outside the pharma sector? The UN survey showing few top100 multinationals have a policy doesn’t ring true. Maybe they don’t in the EU or US head offices (countries where infection rates are a fraction of a percent). Out in the field, companies like Anglo American, Diageo, ChevronTexaco and Coca-Cola don’t just have policies, they also have effective programmes tackling both sides of the issue – prevention (hopefully) and then car – if and when that becomes necessary.

The broader WEF survey shows there is a long tail of smaller firms waiting for ‘society’ to act (and far too many businesses in Asia saying it’s not even a problem). WEF’s three part agenda for action is right – get the facts on the business case and act in your own operations; work with your industry associations to carry laggards along by sharing knowledge and costs, especially with firms in the supply chain; and engage more widely with partners in civil society and governments, to help build effective healthcare systems.

Above all, let’s learn the lessons from Africa and apply them in Asia before the two billion Chinese and Indians face one-in-four infection rates.

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Corporate Citizenship Briefing, issue no: 73 – January, 2004

COMMENT:

Twenty years on from the AIDS killer becoming understood, we still seem to be debating what to do. The human consequences of inaction are more dreadful than ever.

December 1 was World AIDS Day. A useful peg to hang a moment’s reflection on the shocking statistics: 40 million infected with HIV around the world, up five million in just 12 months, with one in four Southern Africans now infected. The numbers become truly terrifying if the disease takes hold in India (population 850 million) and China (1.3 billion). Unlike the other big killers, which tend to attack the very young, the old and the weak, HIV/AIDS goes for the active, productive population. That makes it a big business issue. And in the worst affected countries, truckers driving companies’ goods to market are a big vector in transmission.

Arguably too much attention has focused on the drug pricing policies of pharma companies, with little mention that high prices paid by western health care systems have funded one of the fastest and most effective research programmes ever. Belatedly they have moved on developing world pricing, so attention can now focus more on the rickety health care systems which are a harder barrier to overcome in getting help where it’s needed.

What about companies outside the pharma sector? The UN survey showing few top100 multinationals have a policy doesn’t ring true. Maybe they don’t in the EU or US head offices (countries where infection rates are a fraction of a percent). Out in the field, companies like Anglo American, Diageo, ChevronTexaco and Coca-Cola don’t just have policies, they also have effective programmes tackling both sides of the issue – prevention (hopefully) and then car – if and when that becomes necessary.

The broader WEF survey shows there is a long tail of smaller firms waiting for ‘society’ to act (and far too many businesses in Asia saying it’s not even a problem). WEF’s three part agenda for action is right – get the facts on the business case and act in your own operations; work with your industry associations to carry laggards along by sharing knowledge and costs, especially with firms in the supply chain; and engage more widely with partners in civil society and governments, to help build effective healthcare systems.

Above all, let’s learn the lessons from Africa and apply them in Asia before the two billion Chinese and Indians face one-in-four infection rates.

Corporate Citizenship Briefing, issue no: 73 – January, 2004

COMMENTS