Abbott Global AIDS Care

For more than 20 years, Abbott has made a significant contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS through the development of innovative tests and medicines. Building on this history, Abbott and the Abbott Fund are investing more than $100 million to advance HIV testing, treatment and support services in developing countries through Abbott Global AIDS Care programs. Working together with local and international partners, Abbott is improving the lives of people affected by HIV/AIDS through programs targeting critical areas of need in developing countries. This is an extension of Abbott's commitment to global citizenship, which informs how the company advances its business objectives, engages its stakeholders, implements its policies, applies its social investment and philanthropy, and exercises its influence to make a productive contribution to society.

Abbott Global AIDS Care programs focus on four key areas: strengthening health care systems, helping children affected by HIV/AIDS, preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and expanding access to testing and treatment.

About Abbott's Global Care Initiatives

Abbott's Global Care Initiatives respond to the HIV/AIDS crisis through four targeted programs in developing countries around the world:

• Step Forward was created by Abbott and the Abbott Laboratories Fund to improve the lives of orphans and vulnerable children impacted by HIV/AIDS. Step Forward works with international and local partners (Axios, Baylor College of Medicine, International HIV/AIDS Alliance, local governments and in–country NGOs) to address specific community needs through four critical activities: education, health services and infrastructure, voluntary counseling and testing, and provision of basic needs.
• Tanzania Care is a partnership among Abbott, the Abbott Laboratories Fund and the Government of Tanzania to modernize the country's public health care facilities and systems, and to improve services and access to care for people living with HIV/AIDS and other serious illnesses. The overarching goal of Tanzania Care is to create a public/private model that can be adapted by other companies and organizations working to fight AIDS in the developing world. In collaboration with Axios, its implementing partner, Tanzania Care focuses largely on renovating and modernizing Muhimbili National Hospital, the country’s largest public health facility, and enhancing its position as Tanzania's primary research, referral and teaching facility and as a "center of excellence" for the entire region. The program also covers regional hospitals and laboratories, modernizing systems, increasing training of medical workers and laboratory personnel, and expanding access to VCT for HIV.
• Abbott Access to HIV Care is the company's direct contribution to the fight against AIDS through broadened access to Abbott's HIV diagnostic tests and therapies in 69 countries, including all of Africa. The company provides two antiretroviral drugs, Kaletra® (lopinavir/ritonavir) and Norvir® (ritonavir) at a loss to Abbott. In addition, Abbott is the only pharmaceutical company to provide a rapid HIV diagnostic test, Determine HIV, at no profit for VCT programs in developing countries. Abbott Access to HIV Care is available to any organization or institution that provides products to patients as part of a sound and sustainable program of care.
• Determine HIV Testing Donation Program provides Determine HIV rapid tests free of charge to programs for the prevention of mother–to–child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS in 69 countries, including all of Africa. Abbott partners with leading organizations working in PMTCT and cooperates with Boehringer Ingelheim, which provides free HIV treatment to prevent transmission of HIV from mother to child.