Public-private partnerships leading to successes in HIV treatment and prevention

The recent achievements in studies looking at treatment as prevention "were only made possible by the partnership between publicly funded scientists and private drug companies," Ward Cates, president of research at FHI; Salim Abdool Karim, director of the Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa; and Myron Cohen, director of the UNC Division of Infectious Disease and the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Disease, write in an opinion piece in the Huffington Post.

"More governments and pharmaceutical companies must join together to ensure the availability of antiretroviral therapy for HIV treatment and prevention at the lowest possible cost in all resource-poor countries. … In addition, governments, non-governmental organizations and the pharmaceutical industry need to collaborate to train health workers to provide HIV treatment and prevention at the community level. Strengthening HIV prevention and treatment services, community outreach and literacy programs, and promoting cross-training among those providing prevention and treatment could be jointly funded by public and private resources," they state (6/17).