HIV/AIDS

Despite signs of progress in funding, political commitment and access to treatment, the AIDS pandemic requires an extraordinary acceleration in global response. BD is answering this call by providing frontline products that are making contributions ranging from prevention to therapeutic monitoring. But if there is to be greater headway in this battle against HIV/AIDS, it will come through research and advanced diagnostics. The BD FACSCanto™ system serves as a powerful tool for researchers andclinicians seeking to understand this disease and the immune system.

BD's highly sophisticated instrumentssuch as the BD FACSCanto™ system introduced in 2004enable researchers to better understand HIV/AIDS, which will hopefully lead someday to the development of an effective vaccine. BD also produces basic, but highly precise, productsfor example, the auto-disable BD SoloShot™ VX and BD SoloMed™ syringesthat are critical in light of World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 40 percent of all injections in the developing world are given with previously used devices. Additionally, it is estimated that reused devices cause 260,000 HIV/AIDS infections annually.

Sophisticated research as well as basic clinical technologies represent the broad spectrum of BD innovations focused on combating HIV/AIDS. As Krista Thompson, named to lead the HIV/AIDS strategy across BD, says, "It takes innovation to make things simple and affordable. We tend to think of innovation as highly technical and complex, but in order to battle this disease we need to get appropriate products to the people who need them."

In working toward a coordinated HIV/AIDS strategy, BD is seeking to leverage the research, prevention and diagnostic tools that it provides in each of its three business segments. Examples include BD FastImmune™ reagents along with flow cytometers from BD Biosciences, used by HIV vaccine researchers to assess immune response. BD Medical provides advanced protection devices that prevent reuse and help safeguard healthcare workers from the transmission of HIV and other diseases through accidental injuries caused by contaminated needles. BD Diagnostics technologies are used to diagnose and monitor many infectious diseases associated with HIV/AIDS. Notable among these is the BD BACTEC™ MGIT 960, which shortens the time required for detection and susceptibility testing of tuberculosis, a leading killer of AIDS patients globally. The Company is also broadening its global infrastructure with additional on-the-ground resources in Europe and Africa.

BD will seek to expand its role as a supplier and resource for government health ministries and public health agencies around the world, while also maintaining its philanthropic activities in the HIV/AIDS arena, through, for example, donations to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). In a new collaboration, BD is working with the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation to provide the developing world with affordable monitoring technologies for CD4 testing.

Thompson makes two additional observations about BD and its role in the battle against HIV/AIDS. First, BD is looking at HIV/AIDS as a disease statethat is, thinking about it holistically and bringing all of its resources to bear in much the same way it approaches diabetes. Second, she says, this will be a long battle for the world. "With a combination of philanthropic and sustainable business efforts, BD can marshal both current technologies and future innovations in a concerted effort to help defeat HIV/AIDS."