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What are you doing to improve healthcare in
the developing world?

Summary

GSK is an industry leader in providing access to medicines in the developing world.

Getting the balance right
For a commercial organisation like GSK, there is a balance to be struck between the return to shareholders and our desire to improve access to our products, particularly for patients in the developing world.

HIV/AIDS has both worsened the healthcare crisis in sub-Saharan Africa and brought it worldwide attention. Poverty means that too many are denied education or die from malnutrition and a lack of clean drinking water. The ability of a pharmaceutical company to address the healthcare problems of the developing world must be seen in this broader context.

Where we offer our anti-retrovirals (ARVs) and anti-malarials at not-for-profit prices, this is in addition to our significant community investment activities. Our Corporate Responsibility Report has more details of our efforts to improve access to medicines, in both the developing and the developed world, and information about our other community partnership programmes.

Do more, feel better, live longer
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are killing around 20,000 people every day. We believe that playing our part is not just the right thing to do; it is the only thing to do.

We contribute through action in four areas: preferential pricing of our ARVs, anti-malarials and vaccines; investing in R&D into diseases of the developing world; community investment activities and partnerships that foster effective healthcare; and through innovative partnerships.

Sometimes, the healthcare crisis in Africa is used by some pressure groups to attack our industry or the intellectual property (IP) system. But it is important to understand that we rely on IP to generate the funds which enabled us to invest £3.2 billion in R&D during 2007. We will continue to stress this to those who would like to see the IP environment weakened.

Without investment in R&D we will not see the much-needed new medicines and vaccines. This requires a delicate balance - which we believe we achieve - to the benefit of shareholders and patients the world over.

Preferential pricing
We have provided our vaccines at preferential prices to the developing world for over 20 years.

Our HIV/AIDS and malaria treatments are offered at not-for-profit prices to public sector customers and not-for-profit organisations in all the Least Developed Countries and all of sub-Saharan Africa. Including Global Fund and other eligible programmes, our not for- profit prices are now available in around 80 countries.

Innovative partnerships
For products with no viable commercial market, such as truly neglected tropical diseases, we work in public-private partnerships. We provide the R&D, technology, manufacturing and distribution expertise while academic institutions provide research and disease area knowledge. Public sector partners, governments, or organisations such as the Gates Foundation, help fund the project and assist in getting the medicines to the people who need them. Funds are usually channeled through organisations such as the TB Alliance and the Malaria Vaccine Initiative.

These programmes have transformed R&D in neglected diseases. For example, the pipeline for malaria treatments is now the richest the world has ever seen.

We have granted voluntary licenses to allow generic manufacturers to produce their own versions of our key ARVs for HIV/AIDS. There is now global capacity to manufacture enough ARVs to meet the world's needs - the challenge is to get the medicines to the people who need them.

Community investment
January 2008 saw the 10th anniversary of our commitment to eliminate lymphatic filariasis (LF), also known as elephantiasis. To date we have reached over 130 million people, and 24 million children have been born in areas that are now
LF-free.

We also currently support significant HIV/AIDS education programmes in Africa, India, China and Mexico. Each programme faces different challenges, but the importance of education among people marginalised by society is common to all.

Further community investment programmes include Personal Hygiene and Sanitation Education (PHASE), which focuses on how the simple act of washing hands can prevent diarrhoeal disease and save lives.

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