London - ViiV Healthcare, the global specialist HIV company majority-owned by GSK, with Pfizer Inc. and Shionogi Limited as shareholders, today announced its renewed commitment to Positive Action a community support programme designed to further the company's mission of ensuring no person living with HIV is left behind through the launch of its new strategy.
The vision for the next decade is 'healthy communities in a world free of AIDS'. Positive Action is pushing to find innovative ways of supporting interventions that will enable the UN 2030 target of ending AIDS to be met.
There are still 37 million people living with HIV around the world today.1 Starting in 2020, two immediate priorities for ViiV Healthcare's Positive Action global programmes are ending paediatric AIDS and improving community-based harm reduction programmes. Paediatric HIV remains a global issue with children disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic and major obstacles persist - only 54% of the 1.7 million children living with HIV have access to treatment.1 Harm reduction is a proven intervention to prevent HIV and other co-infections among people who inject drugs. Many people who use drugs are at increased risk of acquiring HIV and experience violence, stigma and discrimination, which restricts their ability to access health services and support.
The new ten year strategy has built on what has worked over the past 25 years and is guided by a newly formed Strategic Advisory Council, comprising leading global experts and advocates in HIV, including: Matshidiso Masire, Founder and Director of Bridging Dialogue in Botswana; Dr Christoph Benn, Director for Global Health Diplomacy at the Joep Lange Institute in the Netherlands; Erika Castellanos, Director of Programmes at GATE in the Netherlands; the UK poet, speaker, writer, activist and health promoter, Bakita KK and Marina Adamyan, MPH, MBA Social Innovator and Business for Development Champion.
Stephen Rea, Head of External Affairs and Communications at ViiV Healthcare, said: 'Building on what we have learned in our 25 years of funding community-based organisations, we have renewed our commitment to Positive Action and are pushing ourselves even further and aim to play a leading role as the global community work to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Guided by recognised experts and working alongside strategic partners, we will ensure consistent support is provided directly to those interventions and organisations to make an impact. We are proud of what we have achieved through Positive Action already and we are excited about reinvigorating our work in this space to further ensure we leave no one behind.'
Positive Action will invest in partnerships and initiatives through two funding streams aligned with the strategic focus areas to support communities where there is the most unmet need. The Community Strategic Initiatives (CSI) programme will help small community-based organisations to develop and deliver innovative projects at a grassroots level. The other funding stream, Breakthrough, will see Positive Action partner with organisations in strategically-targeted settings to deliver measurable and scalable impact. Positive Action remains people-centric and will continue to champion the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV and community-led action in bringing us closer to an AIDS-free world.
About Positive Action
Positive Action was created in 1992 as the first pharmaceutical company programme to support communities affected by HIV and AIDS. ViiV Healthcare is proud to continue the Positive Action programme and its valuable work with these communities. Focused on being a transformational partner, Positive Action funds highly effective programmes and interventions that champion people and communities to end AIDS. Providing technical expertise, utilising data to ensure evidence-based decision making and advocacy / policy initiatives, and highlighting the importance of harm reduction, Positive Action puts people living with and affected by HIV, at the centre of the response.
About ViiV Healthcare
ViiV Healthcare is a global specialist HIV company established in November 2009 by GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) dedicated to delivering advances in treatment and care for people living with HIV and for people who are at risk of becoming infected with HIV. Shionogi joined in October 2012. The company's aim is to take a deeper and broader interest in HIV/AIDS than any company has done before and take a new approach to deliver effective and innovative medicines for HIV treatment and prevention, as well as support communities affected by HIV.
Contact:
Isabelle Scali
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