Labs To Fund Spanish AIDS Foundation

The Spanish Ministry of Health's soon-to-be-inaugurated foundationdedicated to research into the prevention of AIDS, is to be entirely funded by the five major drug companies marketing treatments against the disease in Spain, according to Cinco Dias.

Roche, Glaxo Wellcome, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Sharp & Dohme and Abbott Laboratories will each contribute 100 million pesetas ($68.4 million) to the foundation, which will finance research grants into the disease. It is hoped that the venture will be operational before the end of the year. Cinco Dias notes that the five companies have been privately critical of the measure as the Ministry will have total control over the administration of the fund.