Merck, Gates Foundation Commit Additional $60 Million to HIV/AIDS Programs in Botswana

Merck on Tuesday announced that the company together with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would commit "another $60 million toward Botswana's African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships, a private-public partnership aimed at treatment and prevention of HIV," Dow Jones Newswires reports. "The move puts the cash contributions from Merck's foundation and the Gates's charitable efforts to $166.5 million. The drug giant said it will continue to donate HIV medicines," the news service adds (Kingsbury, 8/24). "The new funding will continue the program's original efforts in treatment and care but also will support the second phase initiatives to meet the current treatment needs of the 137,000 Batswana (people from Botswana) living with HIV and new patients enrolled in the second phase," according to a Merck press release. "The second phase initiatives include: the prevention of HIV, the critical need to treat people living with HIV for tuberculosis (TB) and the sustainability of the program to allow Botswana to successfully address HIV/AIDS within its own borders" (8/24).

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