ABSTRACT
As a biochemist, activist, and entrepreneur, Mary Ann Leeper wanted nothing more than to slow, if not halt the spread of HIV/AIDS. Though massive public health efforts targeted toward gay men had begun to slow the disease among that population, statistics indicated that between 1992 and 1995 the number of women with the disease had begun to rise. A female-controlled method for HIV/AIDS prevention had been discussed at the 1987 World AIDS Conference. Since then Leeper had found an inventor who had designed one—a female condom. She persuaded him to work with her to perfect the design, and she ushered the product through a tortuous FDA approval process. As the President of the Chicago-based Female Health Company (FHC), she had surmounted many business challenges, including most recently a major restructuring of the company, but none prepared her for what she now faced.
