Fighting HIV/AIDS, Part of Our Commitment to Caring

From Paul Stoffels, Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals Group, Johnson & Johnson

The fight against HIV has been part of my life’s work and one of my greatest passions. I first met this enemy as a young physician in training in Africa in the early 1980s. Today, as Worldwide Chairman of the Pharmaceuticals Group of Johnson & Johnson, I am privileged to be part of a company whose purpose is caring for people.

This purpose inspires me and other employees of Johnson & Johnson as we try every day to create new solutions for patients. And, it’s what has guided our approach to fighting the devastating global epidemic of HIV/AIDS.

As we prepare for this week’s AIDS 2012 Conference, I thought about how our commitment to the doctors, nurses, patients, communities and our employees affected by HIV is the focus of everything we do. Our commitment to them is what guides our extensive research and development of medicines to treat AIDS; combat resistance; simplify treatment; discover, develop, and submit for approval a novel compound for drug-resistant TB; and conduct early basic research toward fulfilling the dream of an AIDS vaccine.

It’s also what inspires us to partner with more than 100 community-based organizations in 40 countries and to contribute to the UN Millennium Development Goals to reduce mortality in women and children by 2015. For a sample of this work, you can read about our support of an assistance program in Brazil, or find out more about other people and programs we support around the world.

It’s what drives us to continue to increase access to our life-saving medicines around the world, which you can find information about here. You can also hear more about how about how our development of these medicines translates into more effective treatment for patients by clicking here.

It’s why Johnson & Johnson has instituted an HIV/AIDS Global Workplace Policy, to address the challenges of employees affected by the disease.

And, it underlies our ongoing support for our customers who use our products — and whose freedom to travel without stigma and restrictions we support. We are proud to be the first global pharmaceutical company to sign a pledge urging countries to lift travel restrictions for HIV positive people. As part of an initiative announced today with other prominent CEOs, Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky added his signature to the pledge that UNAIDS and GBC Health have organized.

I am tremendously honored to work together with all our employees at Johnson & Johnson in combating HIV/AIDS. For a more comprehensive view of Johnson & Johnson’s work in HIV across our philanthropic, commercial, R&D and access programs, please visit Our Work in HIV/AIDS.