Head of Global AIDS appointed

Randall Tobias, the former CEO of the pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly and Company, has won unanimous approval from a US senate committee to head President George W. Bush's global HIV/AIDS initiative. Earlier this year Bush named Tobias as director for his US $15 billion global programme to tackle HIV/AIDS in 14 African countries and the Caribbean. According to America's Indianapolis Star newspaper, Bush praised Tobias' management skills, despite the ex-CEO's lack of previous experience in HIV/AIDS work. Bush said Tobias would set up a broad network to deliver drugs to the farthest reaches of Africa, "even by motorcycle or bicycle" and would help train health care professionals to treat people living with HIV/AIDS. However, AIDS activists have raised concerns that Tobias would seek to protect pharmaceutical industry profits rather than promote affordable access to antiretroviral drugs in developing countries.