Pharmaceutical companies join funders and charities to commit to action on childhood HIV
A group of research-based pharmaceutical companies – AbbVie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead, Janssen, Merck & Co. and ViiV Healthcare – have come together as the HIV Medicines Research Industry Forum to support the development of new, high-priority paediatric treatments for HIV infection by 2017.
The Global Paediatric Antiretroviral (ARV) Commitment to Action has been facilitated by the Wellcome Trust and coincides with World AIDS day on 1 December.
Ted Bianco, Director of Innovations at the Wellcome Trust, said: “It is marvellous to see the coming together of the companies to be part of this multi-stakeholder effort to provide the benefit of their collective experience and expertise in HIV drug discovery and development to help address unmet medical needs in the treatment of children living with HIV.”
The HIV Medicines Research Industry Forum’s goal is to help pharmaceutical companies collaborate with other stakeholders to explore research and development solutions to address unmet HIV treatment needs in resource-limited settings, with a priority on unmet needs in paediatric HIV treatments.
The Forum embraces the importance of developing new paediatric ARV formulations and accelerating access to these important medicines for children in need.
The Forum is working with the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Pediatric HIV Treatment Initiative and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Pediatric HIV Treatment Initiative is a collaboration of UNITAID, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP).
More information is available in the full HIV Medicines Research Industry Forum press release.
About the Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving health. We provide more than £700 million a year to support bright minds in science, the humanities and the social sciences, as well as education, public engagement and the application of research to medicine.