International Corporations Must Approach HIV/AIDS Pandemic as ‘Business Challenge,’ Opinion Piece Says
International corporations should "donat[e] the capabilities and expertise that they rely on to run their businesses" to the fight against HIV/AIDS and approach the pandemic as an "unprecedented business challenge" as well as a "human tragedy," Peter Dolan, CEO and chair of the pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb, writes in a Financial Times opinion piece. There are "signs of progress" in the fight against the disease, including wider access to antiretroviral therapy and increased funding for prevention, education, testing and poverty alleviation programs, he says. However, as funding grows, companies must "expand their view of how they can increase efforts to mitigate the crisis" because efforts to curb the spread of HIV will not be successful if "integrated systems are not in place to support them," Dolan says. The HIV/AIDS pandemic also is an opportunity to "apply business expertise to the most catastrophic problems imaginable," Dolan says, adding that corporations must "think creatively about the expertise they can contribute" to the fight against the disease, such as clinical, advertising, communications, logistics and transportation expertise. "Ultimately, we cannot respond successfully to the AIDS pandemic with money or medication alone," Dolan says, concluding, "We in the global corporate community have a unique opportunity to apply our expertise and know-how to a fight we must all be part of" (Dolan, Financial Times, 3/9).
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