Today, on World AIDS Day, 1 December, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs announced the collapse of talks on a promising global HIV/AIDS initiative which had the potential to save countless lives of those living with HIV/AIDS in the world’s least developed countries, and improve their quality of life... Throughout the process, Pfizer was the only company that continued to recognise the need for a new substantive industry initiative... Higgs [said]: “The ICEM recognises the fact that GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, Roche, Abbott Laboratories, Gilead Science, and Boehringer Ingelheim, through the Accelerating Access Initiative (AAI),...do valuable work to assist people affected by the Aids pandemic. Although substantial, what they do via the AAI is not sufficient...” [also refers to International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA)]