AIDS United Mobilizes Private Sector Investment to Advance National HIV/AIDS Strategy

Washington, D.C. -- Today at a White House roundtable discussion, Mobilizing Public and Private Sector Investments to Support the Goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, AIDS United and its Access to Care funding partners shared the successes of their groundbreaking partnership, and urged other private sector leaders to make significant investments in advancing the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) and ending HIV/AIDS in the United States.

"It is only through a unified response to HIV/AIDS that we will be able to end the epidemic in America," said Mark Ishaug, President and CEO of AIDS United. "Today's gathering of public and private sector leaders was energizing and inspiring, and gives us hope that other investors will join with us in this important work."

AIDS United's Access to Care (A2C) initiative was created to increase access to and retention in healthcare for thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS. A2C specifically supports the "Increasing Access to Care Pillar" of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, and represents some of the most significant public and private sector investments currently being deployed to advance the NHAS.

Bristol-Myers Squibb's multi-million dollar, multi-year Positive Charge initiative grant to AIDS United was the private-sector catalyst for an unprecedented focus on reducing societal and structural barriers to HIV care, in support of five communities highly affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In July, 2010, AIDS United was awarded a multi-million dollar grant from the Social Innovation Fund, administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), to further expand the scope of its A2C initiative in support of 10 innovative public-private partnershipsto improve individual health outcomes and strengthen local services systems for people living with HIV/AIDS.

"With Bristol-Myers Squibb's leadership in spearheading AIDS United's Access to Care work, we began to break down barriers to HIV care in some of our country's most vulnerable communities," said Ishaug. "The visionaries that subsequently joined our ground breaking partnerships, along with Bristol-Myers Squibb, have demonstrated a real commitment and dedication to improving the lives of those living with HIV, and an unwavering focus on ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic in our country."

To date, AIDS United's funding partnerships for its Access to Care Initiative include Bristol Myers-Squibb, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Chevron, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Ford Foundation, Fred Eychaner, Gilead, Janssen Therapeutics, Levi Strauss Foundation, MAC AIDS Fund, Rogers Innovation Fund, ViiV Healthcare and Walgreen's.