Case Study

AIDS 25 years on

2006 saw the 25th anniversary of AIDS. Although great progress has been made more must be done. GSK has been active in tackling AIDS since the 1980s:

1981 - The first documented cases of the disease we now call AIDS.

1987 - Burroughs Wellcome (a GSK legacy company) introduces the first antiretroviral (ARV), zidovudine (AZT).

1992 – GSK establishes Positive Action.

1994 - US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves GSK’s Retrovir for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

1996 – Combination therapy involving a ‘cocktail’ of drugs promises longer AIDS-free survival.

1997 – FDA approves GSK’s Combivir, the first product to combine two ARVs in a single tablet.

GSK is the first company to sell an ARV therapy at highly discounted prices to sub-Saharan Africa.

2000 - FDA approves GSK’s Trizivir, the first combination of three ARVs in a single tablet.

2001 – 47 million people are infected with HIV, 26 million of these live in Africa. GSK grants its first voluntary licence for the manufacture of generic versions of our ARVs in South Africa.

2007 - HIV infection is no longer a death sentence for people in the developed world, but the epidemic is increasing in Africa and Asia. There is no cure or vaccine for HIV. But GSK remains an industry leader in HIV/AIDS research with several new treatments & potential vaccines in development.