World AIDS Day

As many of you know, Friday, Dec. 1st was World AIDS Day. You may have noticed the red ribbons around town.

According to the WHO:
39.5 million people are currently living with HIV worldwide(24.7 million in Sub-Saharan Africa)
2.9 million people died of AIDS in 2006 worldwide (2.1 million in Sub-Saharan Africa)
AIDS is the 4th leading cause of death in the world (behind, ischemic heart disease (heart attack), cerebrovascular disease (stroke), and lower respiratory infections (pneumonia))

Summary - AIDS is the most widespread and deadly epidemic affecting our world today.

I was forwarded an email from a classmate which had a link to a website for Bristol-Myers Squibb (a huge North American pharmaceutical company). It is called "Light to Unite" and is described as an initiative between Bristol-Myers Squibb and the World AIDS Fund. Basically, on this website, you move a match to light a candle, and for every candle lit, Bristol-Myers Squibb will donate $1 to the World AIDS Fund. Sounds like a great deal, right? I thought so, so I went to the sight and lit my candle - feeling all good about myself and the simple act on my part to help the fight against AIDS.

Then I started reading the fine print. Turns out Bristol-Myers Squibb will only donate up to $100,000 to the fund, and I was the 498,413 candle lit. So my action did absolutely nothing, except direct me to a website on which this pharmaceutical company shamelessly advertises for its new antiretroviral drug. Underneath the pretty candles and heartfelt stories about AIDS patients is the constant banner for this brand new drug.

This drug they are advertising costs $867.75/month. That means that they need to sell about 115 months worth to make up for the $100,000 they so graciously donated to the fight against AIDS. Or, put another way, about 10 HIV+ patients need to use the drug for one year, and Bristol-Myers Squibb will have made their money back. The average HIV+ patient being treated with HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) these days will live for at least 10 years. So, put another way, all Bristol-Myers Squibb has to do is convince one HIV+ person (or more likely, one doctor treating one HIV+ patient) to use the drug, and they have made their money back. Considering their website has now had over 500,000 hits, I would say that their little "philanthropy" has a pretty good potential to turn quite a profit.

What a marketing ploy! Using peoples' naive willingness to help under the guise of an altruistic mission, when in reality simply using it as a way of advertising its own product to ensure larger profits. Think about it - Bristol-Myers Squibb just spent $100,000 (granted it went to the World AIDS Fund, which is better than nothing) to effectively advertise its drug. Some companies pay millions of dollars for a 30 sec. commercial during the Super Bowl.

Well at least they gave $100,000 to the fight against AIDS, right? That's better than nothing, right? I suppose. But let's look at what it cost (or, better yet, gained) them. Bristol-Myers Squibb reported 2006 9 month net earnings at $1.7 billion. This means that their gift of $100,000 was about 0.006% of their profits. What a generous gift! I'm curious as to what their profit will be from this little "donation". I know that they are a company in a capitalistic economy, and as such, will rarely do anything unless it involves a profit. This is the basis of capitalism. But preying upon peoples' desire to help, especially when it comes to something as deathly serious as AIDS, in order to fatten their wallets is pretty infuriating, in my opinion. Please don't go to the website. Instead, visit the WHO website and learn about the HIV/AIDS epidemic, if you are interested.

As a future doctor, I had naively hoped that my fighting would be against disease and suffering. But the further along I get in the process, the more I'm finding out that perhaps the biggest opponents I will be facing in the future are greedy drug companies.