B. Protecting business interests

Certain business sectors have a direct commercial interest in HIV/AIDS through their core business operations, primarily the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. The most obvious are the pharmaceutical companies who are involved in the development of HIV/AIDS treatments and research. For example, Glaxo Wellcome’s “Positive Action” programme is a long-standing and respected international strategy for developing partnerships with community-based HIV/AIDS organisations, aimed in part at encouraging dialogue with and between people living with HIV/AIDS. The response has included a partnership with the International HIV/AIDS Alliance (see Profile 17) to assist in the development and dissemination of the lessons learned from community-based HIV/AIDS programmes worldwide.

In 1999, Bristol Myers Squibb launched “Secure the Future”, a major 5-year public-private partnership initiative (see Profile 14). It has committed $US100 million towards medical research and education, community education and outreach, and capacity-building programmes for women and children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa. The partnership involves local governments, UNAIDS, medical and religious institutions and communities.

The insurance industry has a direct commercial interest in HIV/AIDS given the impact on the well being of its clients and wider community and thus on the direct costs through insurance payments and future markets. American International Assurance, a life insurance company in Thailand, recently developed an initiative that sought to integrate HIV/AIDS into its core business practices (see Profile 1). The innovative response was the development of an evaluation and accreditation programme that provides credited premium value to policyholder companies implementing HIV/AIDS policies and education programmes in the workplace. This kind of approach, that seeks to use core business practices to encourage other companies to respond, has considerable potential for replication elsewhere in the insurance and banking sectors.