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CEO/Chairman’s statement

Corporate responsibility is fundamental to delivering our business goals. While the interests of shareholders remain paramount we also need to respond to stakeholder expectations by helping to address society’s healthcare challenges.

We accept this challenge. Solving problems such as healthcare provision in the developing world is not a job for one company alone, however we do have an important contribution to make. Our access to medicine programmes for HIV/AIDS and our work with the World Health Organization to eradicate Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) are evidence of the efforts we are making. In 2005 we shipped 126 million preferentially priced Combivir and Epivir tablets to developing countries for treatment of HIV/AIDS and donated 136 million albendazole tablets for the prevention of LF. Through our public private partnerships we are developing the first pipeline of new tuberculosis treatments in 40 years and testing new vaccines and treatments against malaria, a disease which takes a devastating toll on the people of Africa.

Corporate Responsibility encompasses how we address and manage issues that arise from our business activities. Good performance on corporate responsibility supports our business strategy because it protects and enhances our relationships and reputation with doctors, governments and patients.

GSK’s core business – the research and production of medicines – makes a valuable contribution to society. For many people our medicines are, quite literally, life-saving. But our satisfaction in what we do does not mean we can ignore issues associated with the research, manufacture and sale of medicines - from the publication of research results and marketing practices of pharmaceutical sales representatives, to the use of animals in research and the environmental impacts of our manufacturing processes.

We are confident we have the right policies and programmes in place so that we operate to the highest standards. This report provides an update on the progress we have made against our ten corporate responsibility principles during 2005. Particular highlights include our new policies on the authorship of research articles, consumer advertising and patient advocacy, and our Clinical Trial Register that now contains results from over 2,000 GSK sponsored clinical trials.

We seek views from a wide range of stakeholders and respond to their suggestions where possible. This report contains new information in a number of areas in response to feedback we have received (see Stakeholder engagement). We hope this report provides the information you are seeking about corporate responsibility at GSK and we welcome your feedback.

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