GlaxoSmithKline announces cheaper drug prices in developing countries
20/03/2009

In a bid to provide the world’s poor with better medical treatment, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced recently that it would soon make cheaper drugs more accessible to millions in the developing world.

GSK CEO Andrew Witty said that drug companies had an obligation to help the poor afford treatment. In a major strategy shift, GSK has pledged to:

• Reduce prices of its patented medications by more than 25% of the price of such medications in developed countries and to make its drugs more affordable in middle-income countries such as Brazil and India
• Reinvest 20% of profits made from drug sales in the least developed countries back into hospitals, clinics and staff of these countries
• Invite scientists from other companies, non-governmental organizations and governments to conduct research on treatments for tropical diseases at its facility in Tres Cantos, Spain. (Wall Street Journal, 2/14 and Boseley, Guardian, 2/14).

Witty added that research and development in respect of treatments for a variety of diseases was currently being neglected and proposed the creation of a voluntary patent pool to fuel such development. Witty said that GSK would contribute patents that could lead to the development of new treatments for malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases. However GSK did not include HIV/AIDS research in the patent pool which focuses on diseases for which treatments have yet to be found.
Wilhelm Prozesky
Professional Assistant
wilhelm-p@adamsadams.co.za
Adams & Adams