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Going to Fight HIV in China: Merck, Pfizer, Bayer, Gallo
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Remote rural regions focus of new AIDS campaign. Merck goes to China
By Wang Zhenghua and Zhang Feng
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-31 05:50
The country's top health authority is recruiting high-level health professionals to guide the anti-HIV/AIDS campaign in poor and remote areas.
Specialists, who can be domestic or overseas residents, are wanted and will be sent to Liangshan Prefecture, an area hit hard by the deadly virus in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, for at least four months.
The recruitment is co-sponsored by Chinese authorities and global pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) in a programme aimed at developing a workable approach to preventing the disease.
The professionals' tasks include training local health workers, launching and enhancing HIV/AIDS management programmes and also evaluating overall strategies in the fight against the disease in Liangshan.
Those who want the job should "have worked at in-patient or infectious disease departments in universities, hospitals and other medical institutions for at least five years," the Ministry of Health said on its website.
They are expected to carry out skills training and design curricula for local health workers, it added.
They should also be able to speak both English and Chinese, while all their expenses will be covered by the programme.
Detailed recruitment information can be downloaded from the ministry's website - www.moh.gov.cn.
In Liangshan, HIV is spreading mainly among drug users through the sharing of contaminated hypodermic syringes.
"We urgently feel the need for professionals to help our work here," said Xie Nianzhi, deputy director of the Infectious Disease Prevention Centre of Xichang, the prefecture's capital.
"Because many villages are hard to access owing to their remoteness and backward transport facilities, our education programme has difficulty reaching out to local residents," he said in a telephone interview yesterday.
"It's not uncommon to see drug users in these villages, and the disease is spreading quickly."
In China, which has an estimated 840,000 HIV carriers, the lack of professionals working in treating AIDS patients and carrying out intervention activities among high-risk groups, such as drug users and prostitutes, is a big headache for the government, said Hao Yang, vice-director of the Disease Control Department of the ministry. Others estimate that the number of HIV-positive people in China probably is between one million and 1.5 million. UNAIDS has said that the number of HIV-positive people living in China could increase to 10 million by 2010 unless steps are taken to address the epidemic.
Due to the lack of medical services supplied by qualified doctors, many sufferers stop taking the anti-viral medication offered free by local governments, Hao said. This is especially true in rural areas where more than 70 per cent of the country's HIV/AIDS patients are found, statistics show.
Moreover, most of the country's limited number of professionals are now working in big hospitals and the disease control centres of big cities, experts noted.
This programme shows that China has opened its doors to international businesses to help in the fight against the disease, experts said.
(China Daily 08/31/2005 page3)
Global business coalition on HIV/AIDS.
Bayer & Merck go to China
Bill Valentino
2005-08-31 06:03
China's health officials are currently faced with some of the country's most pressing and unprecedented issues regarding public health and social development. In this setting, the debate rages on about reforms of the nation's health care system.
China's growing HIV/AIDS epidemic is one example of how the private sector is taking on a proactive role in addressing one of China's most challenging public health issues through collaborative interaction with the government, international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in a multi-sectoral response to combat HIV/AIDS.
At the vanguard of this initiative is the Global Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GBC), a leading global organization mobilizing business in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
In 2004, the GBC created the China Business and AIDS Working Group, bringing together over 60 businesses in China to help facilitate business action on HIV/AIDS. The group is intended to bring together Chinese and foreign businesses to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in China.
The work of the GBC in China is in close partnership with China's Ministry of Health, integrating the GBC's network of over 200 leading Chinese and international companies which under the GBC now represents a workforce of 4 million employees in 178 countries.
In March 2005, the GBC and the Chinese Ministry of Health hosted a Joint Summit on Business and HIV/AIDS in Beijing to catalyze business involvement on HIV/AIDS. The summit succeeded in identifying actionable ways by which the private sector can partner the government to advance China's national HIV/AIDS strategy for prevention and control.
Following the summit, an increasing number of companies are now acting to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic by leveraging their resources and expertise in the national fight against HIV/AIDS. They are working to also implement prevention and control policies in their own offices and facilities targeted at protecting their employees and businesses from HIV/AIDS.
Additional objectives of these companies led by the GBC are to not only to succeed through action in the workplace but also in the community. They represent an important function of the private sector in the healthcare system as advocates of early intervention and prevention as the key to avoiding a national AIDS crisis.
The GBC member companies benefit from a three-step business management model called the "Business AIDS Methodology" (BAM) for the design and implementation of corporate responses to HIV/AIDS. Applied in three steps - situation analysis, strategy design and strategy implementation - there are four key areas identified where businesses can act: Advocacy and Leadership, Workplace, Core Competency and Community Involvement.
Examples of how GBC member companies in Beijing have already demonstrated their commitment to implementing community projects include Bayer and Merck, Sharp Dome.
MSD's Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnership is a $30 million project over a five-year period, established in 2005 with the Ministry of Health to prevent the spread of HIV, support people infected or affected by HIV/AIDS, and to reintegrate people living with HIV/AIDS as productive members of their communities.
Bayer China and Tsinghua University last year started an innovative public health initiative, the "Tsinghua-Bayer Public Health and HIV/AIDS Media Studies Programme" designed to promote and support the vital role that the media plays in China as a strategic resource in educating as well as in shaping public attitudes and understanding about HIV/AIDS. These are all critical factors in creating awareness, prevention, giving care and reducing stigmatization and discrimination.
While the burgeoning HIV/AIDS crisis threatens to undermine China's economic progress, the GBC plans to scale up its work in China by establishing an office very soon in Beijing in space provided by one of its member companies Sohu.com.
Addressing HIV/AIDS is a task for all sectors of society. A workplace HIV/AIDS programme or other private sector initiatives do not operate in isolation from government, local communities, other companies or civil society groups.It is one of many contributors to an overall national effort to control the disease and its impact. In this capacity, the private sector is making a contribution to China's health care reforms by offering options to solve some of the biggest health-related issues confronting China and its leaders today.
(China Daily 08/31/2005 page13)
The role of private sector in nation's health care reforms.
Pfizer goes to China
2005-08-31 06:03
Alexander Wan: What would you like to tell our readers?
Allan Gabor, Pfizer: Pfizer is a pharmaceutical company with strong global resources and capacities, and would like to build partnerships among the public, private, and patient health sectors to support health care reforms. We believe that emphasizing prevention, wellness, early diagnosis and early treatment can keep disease from many personal health care disasters. Pfizer China has provided philanthropic patient education on disease awareness on many disease categories, such as cardiovascular disease, mental disease, infectious diseases, men's health, hepatitis B, and HIV/AIDS even though we don't have products right now for hepatitis B and HIV/AIDS in China. On average, there is savings of more than US$2 for every US$1 invested in early prevention programs.
Li Zhongyuan, China Health Care Group: The primary responsibility of the government should be to fix the basic healthcare coverage in China. Given the wealth differentiation, the healthcare industry should also encourage market-oriented premium health care services to the section of Chinese population who can afford them. The leading public hospitals should be permitted to engage in premium health care services in co-operation with credible offshore players in various forms. Public hospitals can only maintain their current positions as centres of excellence in various specialities by introducing contemporary health care ideas and practices and expertise by working with high-end patients systematically. The government should regulate public hospitals by encouraging and guiding them to do the right things and help them deal with the budgetary reality they face.
Anne Zhang, L'Oreal China: Settle on a practical hospital management policy as soon as possible:
1. Open up the hospital operation system as soon as possible: every hospital could have high charges for patients who want better and private service. The government could have a special price system for people who enjoy government medical insurance.
2. Decrease period of hospitalization and build a community medical service centre system for common diseases.
3. Cutting drug prices is not the right way to lower the whole package of medical fees.
4. The public bidding policy for drugs should not be controlled by government - it increases the corruption in government.
Vic Lazzaro, China Care Group: Require all public hospitals to provide emergency care. Such services should be paid for by the government on a fee-for-service basis in a pre-determined rate structure. All other services would be considered elective and would be paid for by the patient and his insurance policy where applicable. We should create a scale for determining the ability to pay based on income, assets or other methodology to determine who is medically indigent. It is the government's responsibility to lead in this change process. However, the Chinese Hospital Association should be asked to create a committee of prominent hospital leaders to serve as a commission to assist the government.
David Jin, Philips Medical System: What I would like to say to the Chinese Government is to make it a top priority and significantly increase investment in the health care sector in order to build an effective health care system based on the contributions by both governmental and private sectors. I would like to see various stake-holders in the process jointly contribute to a sustainable growth model. Philips Medical Systems will definitely do its part by working together with various stake-holders towards the healthy development and long-term growth of China's health care sector.
Dr Jonathan Seah, Parkway Group Healthcare:
As the largest private hospital group in Asia, we strongly believe that the development of private for-profit health services in any country should be closely co-ordinated with the public non-profit healthcare system. Properly executed, an effective private healthcare system can help reduce or maintain the total health care expenditure in a country.In Singapore, for example, where our company has the majority market share of private health care services, the total healthcare expenditure for the country is only around 3 per cent of GDP - and actual government expenditure constitutes only about a third of that (about 1 per cent of GDP). As a comparison, health care expenditure in the United States is around 12 per cent, in Canada about 9 per cent, in the United Kingdon and Japan about 7 per cent. This, however, can only happen when there is a good understanding of what the different roles of the public non-profit health care system and the private for-profit hospitals are. In Singapore, an important part of this strategy is limiting premium and elective services at public hospitals in order to reduce costs for the non-profit health care system, as well as to focus public resources on providing a good level of basic health care to a larger segment of the population. Patients who desire a premium level of care, or who seek elective services not considered "basic medical care" are cared for by the private for-profit healthcare system. Additionally, this system cannot evolve in a vacuum, but has to be developed along with other elements of the health care infrastructure.
Stanley Tam, MD, Harvard Medical School: What you are trying to do to reform the health care system is extremely critical to the health of the people and the eventual economic growth of China. The most efficient and effective plan is to involve both the public and private sectors, with clear guidelines and regulation governing the role of public institutions in the areas of public health and basic health care services, avoiding using public institutions in for-profit efforts. To improve the over all health care system, one must have clear metrics to measure any interventions, so that we could build on prior experiences. The private sector should be given freedom to operate under certain regulations so to benefit the entire health care system.
Alexander Wan: Can you share with us the roles your company would like to play in China's health care reforms? Tell us your experience in other countries.
Allan Gabor, Pfizer: Pfizer is committed to supporting health care reforms in both urban and rural areas in China. Pfizer China has worked with the Ministry of Health to initiate an advanced hospital management training programme at Beijing University. The Advanced Hospital Management programme has exposed senior hospital management personnel nationwide to innovative management theories and practices to increase efficiency and effectiveness. Pfizer China has supported a pilot rural co-operative health care system in Yunnan programme to explore the best practices on health care reform in rural areas. In the United States, we launched A Healthy State health care management initiative in the state of Florida, called "Healthy Florida" to support health care reforms for ageing people.
Li Zhongyuan, China Health Care Group: We would like to nurture the creation of a rational and viable private health care service market in China by systematically introducing international expertise, capital and technology. The core component of such work is working with leading public hospitals and introducing advanced ideas and management in a commercially viable way. We have worked with partners in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and India.
Allan Choate, The Asia Foundation: With the support of the Pfizer Foundation, The Asia Foundation (TAF) has launched two pilot projects in China's rural areas called "New Rural Cooperative Healthcare Scheme", in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.
In the first place, the scheme - with a co-payment structure built in - is expected to fill an over-decade-long void of a health care safety net in China's rural areas. Once the farmers participate in the scheme, they pay an annual fee of 10 yuan into a pool (matched by another 10 yuan subsidized by the provincial government and the central government respectively) and are entitled to get medical reimbursement. So, from the demand side (farmers) perspective, the new scheme is revolutionary in that it helps cover farmers' medical cost in an unprecedented manner. Our programme has integrated the supply side reform (the reform of rural area hospitals, clinics, and other service output performers) so that both sides work well in parallel and contribute to the efficiency and sustainability of the new scheme.
Alexis Vannier: PSA Peugeot Citroen: Since last year, we have been deeply involved in road safety and education in China. We have already created five Road Safety Think Tanks in different major cities in China (Beijing, Chongqing, Wuhan, Guangzhou and Xi'an). Every two months or so, we invite a leading Chinese or international expert to give a lecture to these think tanks attended by the media as well as the authorities and medical officials.
Stanley Tam, MD, Harvard Medical School: I am currently the president and CEO of the new Huashan Pudong Hospital, the first Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospital. I have been a veteran in the Harvard medical community for many years. We intend to provide high-quality health care to patients in every economic and social class. We will provide valuable training and education.
(China Daily 08/31/2005 page13)
China, US cooperate in AIDS fight.
University of Maryland’s Institute of Human Viorology goes to China
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-30 10:24
BALTIMORE - Chinese health officials plan to announce an AIDS cooperation partnership with a U.S. institute, a measure that takes aim at combating what health officials fear will be a tenfold surge in HIV infection in China over the next five years, AP reported.
The partnership between the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Maryland's Institute of Human Virology - founded by one of the co-discoverers of the virus - covers collaboration on clinical trials, technical assistance and development of better and faster tests and vaccines, institute officials said.
The step comes as United Nations health officials warned in June that Asia's AIDS problem could rival sub-Saharan Africa if quick action is not taken to stem new infections.
There are 5.1 million people with the virus in India, second only to South Africa with 5.3 million infections, according to UNAIDS estimates for 2003. About 840,000 people in China have the virus, according to the Chinese Ministry of Health, but the UN has warned that number could grow to 10 million by 2010 if the epidemic is left unchecked.
The Maryland institute, which combines laboratory research, epidemiology and clinical research in an effort to get new discoveries to the neediest, can help the Chinese develop strategies and help teach physicians about diagnosis and management of the disease, among other issues, said Richard Gallo, the institute's founder-director.
Other research will focus on the history of the disease in China and a study of traditional Chinese medicines for possible treatment.
The signing ceremony was planned for Monday, the first day of IHV's annual international AIDS meeting in Baltimore and was expected to include Gallo, China CDC Director Wang Yu and Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.
While the Chinese CDC already sends researchers to the institute for training, the new agreement is expected to boost bilateral cooperation and allow American researchers to benefit from China's centuries old medical experience.
"This is more than just missionary work," Gallo said. "I think we have a real chance of getting help from China."
Under the program, institute researchers could also have greater access to non-human primates - which are more strictly controlled in the United States. They would also have access to tens of thousands of people for trials, said Gallo.
This partnership is the newest measure in the Chinese government's growing determination in recent years to fight the virus.
"In the mid-90s to late-90s, we know that the government recognized it as a problem, but they did not put enough priority on it," said Shao Yiming, chief expert for the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, part of the Chinese CDC. "There was talking, but not real action."
One area where Maryland's Institute of Human Virology can help is with the organization of a nationwide campaign for prevention, testing and treatment of HIV and AIDS, Shao said. The government has increased funding to about $100 million (euro81.3 million) last year, so the challenge is implementing such an effort across a country with 1.3 billion people, Shao said.
"That doesn't mean that (Chinese health workers) are not technically good enough, they're just not so experienced with managing a national campaign at this level," he said. "We need an operational team, which is not in place on a large scale."
The institute is also working on a commercial expansion of this partnership with a three-way collaboration with the China CDC and CK Life Sciences, a Hong Kong-based pharmaceutical company, which they hope to sign sometime later this year, Gallo said.
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