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Patient advocacy

Patient advocacy groups provide their members with support and information on how to live with their condition, represent patient views and advocate on issues affecting patients' interests. They are an important stakeholder for GSK and we engage with them as part of our aim to be a patient-focused company.

GSK is committed to ensuring that the company works ethically with patient groups, and that the groups' independence and credibility are not compromised. A global set of principles supports this focus. Throughout 2005 the company focused on communicating these principles externally to patient groups as well as, within internal training programmes, to ensure that GSK employees act appropriately with patient groups.

Patient Advocacy Leaders' Summits (PALS) are one of the ways we engage with patient groups. In 2005 there were regional summits across North America, in individual European countries and for the first time, there was a pan-European summit in Brussels. These meetings give patient groups the opportunity to learn more about GSK, and tell the company how it can better support their work. There are typically a range of workshops for attendees, including sessions on media-training and sharing best practice. The patient group representatives are also able to discuss and debate key issues relating to patient advocacy and healthcare policy. Attendees represented a wide range of patient groups including those dedicated to cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, respiratory diseases, mental health and epilepsy.

The GSK European patient group advisory board was formed in 2005. It considers how the voice of patients can be strengthened across Europe. It is also a sounding-board that allows GSK to have a forum to consult patient groups on the future policy direction of the company, as well as a forum for the groups to raise policy issues that are important to them. The board has an independent chair from the European Cervical Cancer Association, and is made up of representatives from a series of European groups.

In the USA and in Europe GSK is playing a leading role, within the pharmaceutical industry and amongst healthcare stakeholders, to ensure that patient groups maintain their independence.

In the UK GSK's advocacy work is governed by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) Code of Practice which was revised in 2006. The new code states that there must be a written agreement with all patient groups that companies work with, and that there must be a list of all patient groups receiving financial support from companies. The GSK list is available at UK patient organisations.

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