Johnson & Johnson commits $500m to end HIV and TB Epidemics
Published on 04/10/19 at 04:37pm
Johnson & Johnson have announced it has committed to ensuring more than $500 million is dedicated to R&D delivery programs over the next four years to accelerate global efforts to eliminate HIV and tuberculosis by 2030.
The Janssen Pharmaceutical subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson have been committed to the fight against HIV for over 25 years and during this time the company has introduced no less than eight transformational HIV medications, including three antiviral agents and five combination products designed to stop HIV infection turning into a death sentence.
As part of the $500 million investment Janssen will continue to advance an investigational mosaic-based vaccine regimen to prevent HIV together with a consortium of partners.
In partnership with ViiV Healthcare, Janssen is also investigating a long-acting injectable HIV treatment regimen that could be administered to patients once every two months. Such a feat would reduce HIV treatment from pills 365 days a year to just six injection visits per year.
On the tuberculosis front, Johnson & Johnson already announced a comprehensive 10 year initiative in 2018 to support ending the TB epidemic by 2030, and will now continue to build on this foundation.
Jaak Peeters, Global Head of Global Public Health and J&J, said: "TB is the world's number one infectious killers, and TB and MDR-TB cause major devastation for people, communities and entire countries around the world.
"The good news is TB is both preventable and treatable and Johnson & Johnson is committed to doing everything we can to make TB history. With our 10-year initiative we want to unleash the power of science and technology to forever change the trajectory of this terrible disease."
The goal is saving an estimated 1.8 million lives and preventing 12 million new TB infections in the next decade.