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Chairman and CEO letter

Every day we are involved in a race to find new medicines and vaccines to address unmet medical needs; to improve access to these new medicines for all patients regardless of their financial circumstances; and to meet the expectations of our many stakeholders. It’s a race for the human race.

We believe that a healthcare company isn’t sustainable if it is only concerned about the 20 per cent of the world’s population lucky enough to have the resources to pay for new treatments.

Access to medicines is essential to our vision for GSK and our business strategy. Improving people’s health is what drives us and what makes talented scientists want to work here.

Our commitment to the poorest countries is integral to this. These countries may not represent a viable commercial market for some new medicines but there is still a medical need for people to have medicines they cannot afford. Yet pure philanthropy is not the right solution either – the needs are too great.

We look for new ways to tackle these problems. GSK is involved in over ten public private partnership projects – researching new medicines and vaccines for diseases disproportionately affecting developing countries, including HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB. We are also making key medicines and vaccines more accessible through discounted prices and have negotiated eight licences for third-party manufacturers to produce generic versions of our key HIV medicines.

As this Review shows, our efforts are starting to bear fruit. Preferential pricing and voluntary licences are helping to increase the supply of HIV/AIDS medicines to sub-Saharan Africa. In 2006, seven countries completed their five-year programmes to eliminate lymphatic filariasis using our albendazole treatment. We will continue donating our tablets until this disabling and incurable disease is completely wiped out.

Vaccines are another exciting area. In 2006, 75 per cent of all the vaccine doses we produced were sold at preferential prices for immunisation campaigns in the developing world. These will save millions of lives. We expect to launch our vaccine for cervical cancer in 2007. This disease affects women in all countries but has the greatest impact in the developing world where there are few screening programmes to catch early cases.

There is no room for complacency – much more effort is needed from all stakeholders to resolve the healthcare problems of developing countries. But we are proud of the contribution we are making.

We know that our efforts on access to medicine must be based on a solid foundation. Our industry is high profile and often the subject of criticism. Good medicines can make a big difference to quality and length of life for all of us and it is rightly expected that we should meet the highest standards of integrity in all aspects of our work.

This Review gives a snapshot of our approach to embedding an ethical culture across GSK. This includes applying the highest standards of behaviour and transparency in our R&D and promotion of medicines, treating our people well, and minimising the impact of our business on the environment. We also need to play our part in tackling major global issues such as climate change.

We value the input of our stakeholders and would welcome your views on this Review or any aspects of corporate responsibility at GSK.

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