Global Health Progress Highlights ViiV Healthcare's Announcement of New Initiatives

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Released on: July 29, 2010, 5:57 am
Author: Mark Grayson/Global Health Progress
Industry: Healthcare

Global Health Progress highlights ViiV Healthcare’s announcement of a new series of initiatives, including improving access to medicines, to support people living with HIV/AIDS in the poorest and most vulnerable countries.

To address the evolving treatment needs in these countries, ViiV Healthcare will now allow people living with HIV/AIDS to access the whole portfolio of ViiV Healthcare antiretroviral medicines, produced by generic companies. Additionally, ViiV Healthcare is implementing the groundbreaking step of making all patents available to generic manufacturers in these countries for all future pipeline developments, such as the novel integrase inhibitor jointly under development Shionogi – ViiVHealthcare, LLC.

ViiV Healthcare is also expanding the number of countries eligible for this expanded access to medicines to include all least developed countries, all low income countries and all of sub-Saharan Africa – that is 80% of all people currently living with HIV. “At ViiV Healthcare we wanted to go one step further in addressing the HIV/AIDS crisis and supporting access for people living with HIV in the worst affected countries. As a company totally focused and dedicated to tackling this epidemic we are passionately committed to thinking and acting differently and taking new steps to expand access,” said Dr Dominique Limet, CEO of ViiV Healthcare, “At present the numbers of people in the least developed countries moving onto second line therapy is very low compared to the developed world. However as more people have access to treatment, there is an increased need for second and third line treatment options once initial treatment failure occurs.”

ViiV Healthcare also has a number of other key initiatives to support further access to medicines and therapies in the areas worst hit by the epidemic. They are:

• The Not for Profit Price commitment for our ARV portfolio to government and international procurement agencies such as the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and UNICEF – also expanding to these 69 countries today.
• The £10 million seed fund to support access to care and treatment for infants and children and to generate evidence for paediatric fixed dose combinations and formulations
• The Positive Action for Children Fund (PACF) and Positive Action programmes which support a community response to the epidemic. £3.6 million of new grants were announced by the PACF Independent Fund Advisory Board in Kenya supporting twelve projects in eight countries on 30th June 2010.

ViiVHealthcare acknowledges the contribution of Shire Pharmaceuticals Group plc, which has a Master Licence agreement with ViiVHealthcare, for products containing lamivudine; and of Shionogi co-developer of the integrase inhibitor with ViiVHealthcare that have also agreed to waive its rights to royalty payments in order to improve access for these products.

About ViiV Healthcare
ViiV Healthcare is a global specialist HIV company established by GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK.L) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) to deliver advances in treatment and care for people living with HIV. Our aim is to take a deeper and broader interest in HIV/AIDS than any company has done before and then take a new approach to deliver effective and new HIV medicines as well as support communities affected by HIV. GSK holds an 85 percent interest in the ViiV Healthcare and Pfizer holds 15 percent. GSK and Pfizer announced that they had agreed to form a new specialist HIV company on April 16, 2009. The transaction was completed on October 30, 2009. ViiV Healthcare launched on November 3, 2009.

About Global Health Progress:
Global Health Progress provides a platform for companies, governments, public health leaders, universities, foundations, and other stakeholders to share experiences and best practices and to forge new partnerships. Global Health Progress also supports efforts to raise awareness and mobilize resources to address health challenges in the developing world by bringing local leaders together with international health experts, policymakers, donor governments, and the private sector.