Anglo American set to give staff free Aids drugs

Southern Africa's largest mining group is to become the first company in the world to give its workers Aids drugs for free.

Anglo American is the largest employer in southern Africa, with 134,000 staff.

The Financial Times reports that about 23% are infected with HIV/Aids.

The FT says that Anglo is negotiating with GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Boehringer Ingelheim to supply the drugs, expected to cost between £1.56m (€2.5m) and £3.1m (€5m) in the first year of distribution.

Anglo is investigating whether it can buy generic copies of the drugs.

"There is no excuse for delay. It's increasingly urgent to do something," Brian Brink, senior vice-president responsible for medical policy, told ft.com

Anglo says it's accepted internationally that the scale of the health challenge posed by HIV/AIDS, especially in southern Africa, is such that it cannot be adequately addressed by individual companies.

The company calls for a partnership "between all stakeholders".