U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that major pharmaceutical firms promised to invest more on researching treatments for the AIDS virus and diagnostic procedures for poorer regions. The companies also agreed to invest more in prevention, including vaccines and pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis, Ban said in a statement issued after he met with top executives at pharmaceutical and diagnostic firms... The senior executives Ban and other U.N. officials met with were from 17 companies, including Abbott Labs, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer... Ban said the companies agreed to "invest further in research and development of new HIV-related medicines adapted to resource-limited settings..." -- in other words, to try to make drugs available to people in poor environments.