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Humanitarian relief

GSK donates essential products such as antibiotics to help relief efforts in disaster areas and support basic healthcare provision in impoverished communities.

Donations are made at the request of governments and major charitable organisations and may be manufactured specifically for these partners. This enables charities to hold a range of medicines in stock so they can respond promptly in an emergency. We work in partnership with several relief charities including AmeriCares, Direct Relief, InterChurch Medical Assistance, MAP International and Project HOPE.

There is a limit to the amount of products we can give away, so donations must be carefully managed. We rely on the expertise of our partners to ensure that available medicines are targeted at the communities that need them most. GSK general managers must approve donations destined for their country to avoid any conflict with our commercial business. Our charity partners are required to track donations to make sure they reach their intended destination and are dispensed appropriately. We do not donate medicines for diseases which require a continuous, assured supply.

GSK follows the World Health Organization Interagency Guidelines for Drug Donations. These state that donations should be made in response to an expressed need, sent with prior consent and must be labelled correctly and have a minimum one year shelf life. We are also a member of the Partnership for Quality Medical Donations (PQMD), an alliance of pharmaceutical companies and charities that encourages best practice in the donation and delivery of medicines.

Activity during 2005
During 2005 we donated life-saving medicines worth £27 million ($49 million), to support relief efforts in almost 100 countries. Supplies of antibiotics and basic medicines were sent in response to the South East Asian tsunami, hurricanes in the US and the Caribbean and the earthquake in Pakistan.

In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami we donated more than 3.6 million doses of antibiotics to prevent the spread of infectious diseases in affected countries. We have also committed £2 million ($3.8 million) to support organisations working on relief and reconstruction operations in the disaster area.

Following hurricane Katrina we donated medicines valued at $10 million to relief facilities in ten US states. This included antibiotics, vaccines and consumer healthcare products such as toothpaste, antacids and pain relievers. GSK also supplied interim shipments of medicines for diabetes, heart disease, and asthma for patients who had lost their supplies in the disaster. Some of the medicines were distributed to hospitals and shelters by our partner organisations such as Project HOPE and AmeriCares.

GSK is the largest pharmaceutical company in Pakistan and we were able to deliver urgent supplies of free medicines within 48 hours of the earthquake via our local business there. Our product donations, including hepatitis-A vaccines requested by the Ministry of Health, were valued at $6.5 million and we also gave a cash donation of $1 million to the South Asia Earthquake Relief Fund.

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