Glaxosmithkline, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Aids in Africa

• Case – 2 Marks-20In 2004, the United Nations estimated that the previous year 5 million more people around the world hadcontracted the AIDS virus, 3 million had died, and a total of 40 million people were living with theinfection. Seventy percent, or about 28 million of these, lived in sub – Saharan Africa, where the epidemicwas at its worst. Sub – Saharan Africa consists of the 48 countries and 643 million people who residesouth of the Saharan desert. In 16 of these countries, 10 percent are infected with the virus, in 6 othernation, 20 percent are infected. The UN predicted that in these 6 nations two – thirds of all 15 – year oldswould eventually die of AIDS and in those where 10 percent were infected, half of all 15 – year – oldswould die of AIDS. For the entire sub –Saharan region, the average level of infection among adults was 8.8 percent ofBotswana’s population was infected, 34 percent of Zimbabwe’s, 31 percent of Lesotho’s, and 33 percentof Swaziland’s. Family life had been destroyed by the deaths of hundreds of thousands of married couples,who left more than 11 million orphans to fend for themselves. Gangs and rebel armies forced thousands oforphans to join them. While crime and violence were rising, agriculture was in decline as orphaned farmchildren tried desperately to remember had to manage on their own. Labor productivity had been cut by50 percent in the hardest – hit nations, school and hospital systems were decimated, and entire nationaleconomies were on the verge of collapse. With its huge burden of AIDS illnesses, African nation desperately needed medicines, bothantibiotics to treat the many opportunistic diseases that strike AIDS victims and HIV antiretrovirals thatcan indefinitely prolong the lives of people with AIDS. Unfortunately, the people of sub – Saharan Africacould not afford the prices that the major pharmaceutical drug companies charged for their drugs. Themajor drug companies, for example, charged $10,000 to $ 15,000 for a year’s