Alere Inc.’s ALR fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa continues undiminished as is evident from its recent decision to expand support to the Organization of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA), which is committed toward eradicating HIV transmission from mother to child as well as early infant diagnosis (EID).
OAFLA is an alliance of 40 African First Ladies who joined arms to check HIV transmission.
Alere has been supporting OAFLA since Sep 2014, such as through donations of 200,000 HIV/Syphilis Duo rapid tests. In an event summoned by OAFLA during the recent 70th UN General Assembly, Alere announced that it will reach out to an extra 500,000 pregnant women, infants, adolescents and other at-risk populations in Africa with the company’s screening and prevention services.
According to reports, nearly 260,000 African children are infected with HIV each year in the sub-Saharan region. The disease usually spreads through mother to child transmission (MTCT) through pregnancy, labor, delivery and breast feeding. Almost 40% of pregnant women having HIV have not received anti-retrovirals for bringing down MTCT during pregnancy. In a scenario like this, we believe Alere’s services will be of immense importance to the nation.
Meanwhile, we believe that this development will help Alere’s HIV solutions gain better visibility in the African market. This, in turn, will help the company gain a stronger foothold in the region. It is to be noted that the African market has immense untapped potential which can aid in the better growth of the company. In the second quarter of 2015, the company’s revenues from Africa increased 14% on a year-over-year basis.
Zacks Rank and Key Picks
Currently, Alere carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the medical sector are Masimo MASI, Thoratec THOR and NuVasive NUVA. All the stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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