Article at a glance:

How businesses can combat global disease

Diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis claim six million lives annually and have devastated economic growth in some areas of the world. Clearly, no effective long-term response to these maladies can take root without collaboration between corporations and the public sector. Executives must not ignore the risk such epidemics pose, and public-health efforts should welcome contributions from private businesses, which can offer not only money but also marketing and distribution skills, product-development expertise, and intellectual property.

The take-away

Programs that combine commercial skills with public-health objectives can bring private-sector resources to bear on the gravest public-health problems.