Company Overview

Abbott is a global, broad-based health care company devoted to the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceuticals and medical products, including nutritionals, devices and diagnostics.

HIV/AIDS Profile

Abbott Global AIDS Care Programs

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. Through Abbott Global AIDS Care programs, Abbott and Abbott Fund also are investing more than $100 million to advance HIV testing, treatment and support services in developing countries. Working in close collaboration with international agencies, governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), Abbott and Abbott Fund are improving the lives of people affected by HIV/AIDS in developing countries.

Expanding Access to Testing and Treatment

Since 2001, Abbott has made its HIV medicines widely available at no profit in 69 countries, covering all of Africa and the world's poorest countries. Abbott's HIV medicines are among the lowest-priced protease inhibitors in these countries. In 2006, Abbott introduced a new tiered-pricing program for its HIV medicine lopinavir/ritonavir in 45 additional low and low-middle income countries. These efforts are designed to ensure long-term sustainable access to high-quality HIV medicines in these 114 countries and around the world. Abbott also provides a rapid HIV test at no profit to testing programs in 69 countries, with more than 70 million tests distributed to date.

Helping Prevent Mother-to-Child Transmission

Mother-to-child transmission of HIV causes the majority of childhood HIV cases in the developing world. Testing is the first step in achieving prevention, and Abbott donates rapid HIV tests to enable pregnant women to know their HIV status in 69 countries, including all of Africa and the world's poorest countries. Local programs can then provide HIV-positive mothers with free, convenient treatment to prevent transmission of the virus to their children. To date, Abbott has donated more than 5 million rapid HIV tests.

Supporting Children Affected by HIV/AIDS

Abbott Fund is helping advance the treatment of children with HIV, and addressing the needs of orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS through community-based programs focused on health care, education and social services. Model programs are delivering results, including a pioneering treatment clinic in Romania that reduced pediatric HIV mortality rates by more than 90 percent. This model is now being replicated across Africa, including the opening of the first pediatric HIV clinic in Malawi with the support of Abbott Fund. Key community-based programs being replicated in developing countries include legal protection for orphans and widows, fighting stigma by integrating AIDS-specific programming into long-standing community organizations, and child-led support groups that actively engage children in making decisions about their lives. Through partnerships in Burkina Faso, India, Kenya, Malawi, Romania and Tanzania, Abbott Fund has helped more than 600,000 children and families.

Strengthening Health Care Systems

Resource-limited health care systems and lack of trained health care workers are key barriers to scaling up HIV treatment programs in developing countries. Abbott Fund and the Government of Tanzania are partnering in one of the most comprehensive initiatives in Africa to strengthen a country's health care system and train staff to meet the needs of people with HIV and other life-long diseases. The partnership has expanded testing and treatment at more than 90 health centers throughout Tanzania, bringing HIV services into some remote regions for the first time. Additional results include building a new outpatient center and clinical laboratory at the country's leading reference hospital, training more than 10,000 health care workers, and providing HIV testing services to more than 150,000 people.