CASE STUDY - A DROP IN THE BUCKET?
Drug companies are facing a dilemma when it comes to dispensing powerful new AIDS medicines where they are needed most: sub-Saharan Africa, home to seventy percent of the world's HIV-infected populations (24 million). The therapies are too expensive for most patients, and much of the region lacks basic medical services.
The UN World Health Organization has pleaded with drug companies for assistance with this monumental problem by making the drugs more affordable to impoverished people. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, maker of three AIDS drugs, has an approach. It will spend one hundred million dollars in five south African nations over the next five years to fund extensive research trials, train more than 200 physicians, and help non-governmental organizations bolster community AIDS-prevention and treatment programs. This program won't include drug discounts or handouts.