Ned E. Heltzer, RPh, MS

London-based GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) plc and New York–based Pfizer Inc have announced they will combine their HIV drug divisions into a new company (Kelley T. Bloomberg News. April 16, 2009). GSK will hold an 85% share of the joint venture; Pfizer will hold 15%. According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, GSK Senior Vice President Dominique Limet, a physician, is CEO-designate of the new company.

In the United States, 56,300 new HIV infections occurred in 2006, according to the CDC’s first national estimate of HIV incidence based on direct measurement. The CDC released the report July 26 at the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City (Stannard MB. San Francisco Chronicle. August 3, 2008).

Infants who receive 3 additional months of treatment with the drug nevirapine are less likely to be infected with HIV by their mothers through breast-feeding (Emery G. Reuters. June 4, 2008).

AIDS Seen as New Threat to African Democracy A new study suggests that HIV/AIDS is hitting elected officials hard in southern Africa, thus posing a new threat to democracy and governance (Felix B. Reuters. June 4, 2007). The report was released in advance of South Africa's biannual AIDS conference in Durban.