France's LEEM prepares AIDS Day media push

France's drug industry association, the LEEM, has invited representatives of the media and senior industry executives to discuss the pharmaceutical sector's efforts to improve treatments for several major disease areas, including HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and the general problem of access to medicines. The meeting, hosted at the Maison de la Recherche in Paris, will focus on some of the 155 drug access programs that are currently operated by drugmakers in the developing world. These include the reinforcement of local health care infrastructure, training and technology transfers. The timing of the event at the end of November is designed to precede World AIDS Day on December 1.

The industry representatives include: Robert Sebbag, vice president for access to medicines for French drug major Sanofi-Aventis; Jean-Francois Chambon, public affairs director of the French unit of UK pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline; Hughes Joublin, Swiss drug major Novartis' director of communications in France; and Pierre Savart, the international operations manager for the LEEM.

In a recent interview with the Marketletter, Dr Sebbag described the firms as the top three in global access to medicines schemes (Marketletter July 21), adding that this is partly a reflection on the drugmakers' strength in the vaccine sector.