The Global Fund, an organisation dedicated to overcoming AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, selected Abbott as one of seven diagnostic companies to help provide affordable, high-quality infectious disease testing to low and middle income countries.
Under the agreement, Abbott will offer its HIV viral load tests – which monitor the amount of HIV in a person’s blood – at reduced prices to help provide access to quality care in high-burden countries affected by this virus.
Abbott also committed to extend similar pricing for additional infectious disease tests, including Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HPV (human papillomavirus), CT/NG (chlamydia and gonorrhea) and Tuberculosis. One of the only companies to offer such a broad menu of tests on one molecular testing platform, Abbott hopes to encourage the use of HIV viral load and other infectious disease tests to bring care to more people around the world.
The collaboration with the Global Fund is an extension of the work Abbott has been doing in a number of low and middle income countries for years:
Partnering with the Malawi government, Abbott made HIV viral load tests more accessible to health care providers. As a result, clinicians were able to provide appropriate alternative second-line treatment option and help reduce infection rates.
Abbott offers a dried blood spot (DBS) test, which helps detect HIV with just a few drops of blood. DBS simplifies transport of samples and helps clinicians monitor viral load and adjust anti-retroviral therapy in high-burden disease countries, particularly in remote areas.
