I have served as ViiV Healthcare’s Head of North America since February 1, 2019, joining ViiV Healthcare from GSK where I was the Global Vaccines Commercial leader. In my over 25 years in Pharmaceuticals, I’ve had the privilege to have held varied roles around the world and spanning therapeutic areas that have positively impacted the health of individuals, communities and societies. In my current role, I’m proud to lead a team of around 750 dedicated, talented, and passionate individuals across the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico all focused on achieving ViiV Healthcare’s mission to leave no person living with HIV behind.
Ending the HIV epidemic for all people is not a finish line that will be reached through the actions of a single program, company, or government initiative. We will only be successful in this effort by uniting the many individuals and groups who have a role to play in affecting change in our society. This includes more companies within the private business sector using their expertise to help remove obstacles like lack of awareness and educational programs and policy hurdles that block HIV prevention/treatment services within communities. We need to be more innovative and holistic in our approach to how we reach the communities to help understand and connect to care if we’re going to be successful in moving the needle. U.S. Business Action to End HIV is hard at work to help address these obstacles.
I feel it’s natural for our organizations in the business world to have an eye towards optimization and that’s precisely the expertise this group can bring to the wider effort of ending the HIV epidemic. As the founding member of the U.S. Business Action to End HIV, we view this effort as an accelerator for optimization. We want to continue working with all corporate members and the community to fill gaps and accelerate progress to help end HIV through meaningful contributions these organizations can own, such as addressing barriers to health equity, offering tools, resources and events to help employers educate workers, fight stigma, improve access to HIV prevention and treatment services, and build connections to the communities who need it most.
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We have the tools to end the HIV epidemic, and yet the epidemic persists. There is extremely effective treatment that can keep someone’s virus at bay, ensure they won’t pass their virus to others, and allow them to live a full lifespan. There are medicines like PrEP that will prevent the acquisition of HIV among people who don’t have HIV. But unfortunately, some of the tools are not reaching those who need them the most - for a host of reasons that prevent individuals from knowing their status, getting connected to care, and effectively managing their HIV. But by working together, I am passionate about addressing these challenges to be successful in our end goal of ending the HIV epidemic.
There have been such incredible efforts underway by the many members of the Business Coalition since it launched over two years ago. However, as the founding member of the Business Action Coalition, we are particularly proud of the growth we have seen in the Coalition over that time. In over one year, the Business Coalition has nearly tripled in size from 15 organizations to 43. That tells us that organizations and their leadership understand this is a challenge facing our society and they believe in the real-world impact that they can have on ending this epidemic. Their experience is valuable, impactful, and needed. This growth is one of the most exciting things about the Business Action, and we look forward to its continued expansion over time.
Leaders may be wondering how does “business action” help when taking action on HIV? Funding shortages, lack of educational programs, policy hurdles, capacity constraints, civil obstacles on marginalized communities – all coalesce to obstruct the progress of HIV prevention/treatment services and limit community impact. It’s crucial that these obstacles be removed so that together with community-led organizations, we can add even greater capacity to the global HIV response. The Coalition is hard at work to help address these obstacles.
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Our commitment to addressing HIV quite simply starts and ends with our focus on the community of people living with or affected by HIV. We have a very specific commitment to leave no person living with HIV behind. This is our North Star, guiding everything we do, from how we approach the development of new medicines (based on insights from the community into their unmet needs) to how we focus engagement efforts to amplify the voices of the communities that we serve.
By keeping the community at the center of our commitment to addressing HIV, we remain focused on what really matters. While that might seem simple, this singular focus on people keeps us grounded and it’s an approach we feel many other organizations could adopt in their own practices for the benefit of all.
At ViiV Healthcare, we say that we will be here until HIV is not. It’s a unique space we operate in as the only pharmaceutical company solely focused on HIV in the sense that if we are successful in our goal to end the HIV epidemic, we will also be successful in putting ourselves out of business. I can’t think of too many businesses that operate with that same goal.
Although ViiV Healthcare might seem like a newer company approaching its 15th year anniversary, our foundations in HIV go all the way back to the start of the epidemic 40 years ago through our heritage at Burroughs Wellcome, which continued through GSK. There are individuals working at ViiV Healthcare today that were involved in the discovery of AZT, which was approved in 1987 as the first antiretroviral treatment for HIV. Our company journey started at the beginning of the HIV epidemic, and it will continue until the epidemic is ended for all people.
This focus, experience, and long-view that we take to the HIV epidemic allows us to have a holistic approach to addressing HIV. We remain fully committed to overcoming every challenge related to HIV—from progressing scientific innovation, battling stigma to ensuring people disproportionately affected by HIV receive the care they need and deserve—until we end the epidemic once and for all.
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