News this week is that Coca-cola has teamed up with the Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria to help bring medicines to remote regions, harnessing the company’s distribution power.

Now, this kind of makes sense... out of the more remote but limited places I’ve visited (Bolivia, islands of Lake Titicaca, Amazon jungle, the Andes and rural Morocco) Coca-cola is absolutely everywhere! Whilst it would be far more palatable if free healthcare was available in every pocket of the world, the fact is that Coca-cola has infiltrated every corner of the world. In a way you have to be quite impressed by the way they have managed to get their products into even the remotest of places.

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/news/article.asp?docKey=600-201209251739BIZWIRE_USPRX____BW6837-1&params=timestamp||09/25/2012%205:39%20PM%20ET||headline||CORRECTING%20and%20REPLACING%20Coca-Cola%20and%20the%20Global%20Fund%20Announce%20Partnership%20to%20Help%20Bring%20Critical%20Medicines%20to%20Remote%20Regions||docSource||Business%20Wire||provider||ACQUIREMEDIA||bridgesymbol||US;KO&ticker=KO

Why not use them to help deliver critical medicines? Is this a good example of governments and NGOs working with industry in a positive way?  I wonder if it is part of Coca-cola’s CSR strategy... However, is there an irony that whilst these drugs might be helping people fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria etc, their drink products are potentially fuelling obesity at the same time?