Forty million people are living with HIV throughout the world with more than two-thirds of these people living in sub-Saharan Africa. The need for simplified, effective therapies to treat HIV in developing countries is staggering. To improve the lives of a greater share of the global population suffering from this disease, we will continue our efforts to foster access to these drugs throughout the world.
Even with government, non-profit organizations and industry-based initiatives to improve access to HIV treatments, each year there are still an estimated five million people becoming infected with HIV worldwide. New prevention strategies are urgently needed. We are committed to gaining an understanding of the potential role of Viread and Truvada in the prevention of the transmission of HIV. As part of that commitment, we are providing Viread and Truvada at no cost for use in ongoing studies organized by Family Health International, the U.S. CDC, the National Institutes of Health and other third-party partners. Additionally, in December 2006, we granted rights to the International Partnership for Microbicides and CONRAD to develop, manufacture, and, if proven efficacious, distribute to resource-limited countries a gel formulation of tenofovir for use as a microbicide to prevent the transmission of HIV.
The clinical data generated in long-term safety, efficacy and head-to-head studies has become the focal point of our communications with physicians worldwide, helping us differentiate our products from other therapies.
We recognize the need for access to our HIV therapeutics, particularly in developing countries with limited resources to combat the epidemic. To enhance our reach into these areas, we have expanded our Gilead Access Program to 97 countries, which includes all the countries of Africa, the Caribbean and many low-income nations in Latin America and Southeast and Central Asia. Through this program, we provide access to Viread and Truvada at greatly reduced prices.
To better enable access to therapy, this year we granted licensing and technology transfer agreements to 11 India-based companies for manufacturing and distribution of generic versions of Viread in the developing world. To extend the reach of Atripla, we also signed an agreement with Merck for distribution of the drug in the developing world.
