BMS TO SEND DOCTORS TO FIGHT HIV IN AFRICA

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Baylor College of Medicine have outlined strategies to fight HIV/AIDS among infants and children in sub-Saharan Africa.

The plan includes sending 50 pediatric AIDS Corps doctors to a network of clinics by Monday; a program to prevent mother-to-child-transmission of HIV through a government hospital and 15 federal clinics in rural Swaziland beginning next month; and opening two more children's clinics in Uganda and Burkina Faso next year.

In response to the HIV epidemic in this region, in 2001 BMS substantially lowered the price of its HIV drugs to a level that delivers no profit to the company. In 2005 BMS further reduced the price of its pediatric formulations. The company also pledged that its patents would not stand in the way of firms making inexpensive generic drugs available in Africa.

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, through its Secure the Future initiative, has been working in sub-Saharan Africa since 1999. The United Nations estimates that 2.3 million children under 15 were living with HIV in 2005. Almost 90 percent of children with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa.