President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief Launches Public-Private Partnership with Becton, Dickinson

	October 31, 2007 – Gary Cohen, Executive Vice-President for Becton, Dickinson and Company, with HHS Secretary Michael O. Leavitt at the launch of a public-private partnership with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. (Photo by Chris Smith, HHS)
	October 31, 2007 – U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, Ambassador Mark Dybul, M.D., speaks at the launch of a public-private partnership between the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and Becton, Dickinson and Company. (Photo by Chris Smith, HHS)

October 31, 2007 – Adding a new element of innovation to the global fight against HIV/AIDS, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Michael O. Leavitt joined today with the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, Ambassador Mark Dybul, M.D., to launch a five-year, $18 million, public-private partnership with Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) to strengthen laboratory systems in countries severely affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The HHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (HHS/CDC) is the key implementer for this partnership.

Secretary Leavitt thanked Gary Cohen, Executive Vice-President for Becton, Dickinson, and Ambassador Dybul for their efforts to form this partnership, and spoke of his own experiences during a trip to Africa in August 2007, in which he saw the consequences of dilapidated and ill-functioning laboratory infrastructure and services.

"I applaud the work of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and BD in coming together to form this public-private partnership," Secretary Leavitt said. "By joining hands in our individual efforts to help host nations develop robust laboratory facilities, we will maximize the effect our limited resources can have."

BD and the President’s Emergency Plan will collaborate in five primary areas:

1. Improve the quality of rapid testing for HIV and other global infectious diseases through training;
2. Implement quality-control and -assurance guidelines and supervisory tools for HIV testing, monitoring patients’ CD4 counts, and hematology diagnostics;
3. Strengthen tuberculosis (TB) reference sites to serve as centralized training facilities;
4. Improve access to TB diagnostics for HIV-positive patients; and
5. Support the development of national laboratory-improvement strategies in Emergency Plan focus countries.

Ambassador Dybul leads the U.S. Government’s efforts under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. President George W. Bush announced the creation of the five-year, $15 million Emergency Plan during his State of the Union address in 2003 as an urgent global response to the spread of HIV/AIDS. It assists the most affected regions of the world to provide prevention, care and treatment to those suffering from or at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.

Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) is a U.S.-based medical technology company that provides training on key clinical and laboratory procedures, which are vital components of health-care capacity-building and sustainability. BD has developed workshops on Good Laboratory Practices to train laboratory and clinical personnel to use standard operating procedures, as well as diagnostic and monitoring tools. Partnering with over 24 Governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations, BD has delivered workshops to several thousand participants in over 56 countries. BD employees will participate as trainers in the partnership.

Last revised: November 20, 2007