Corporate Responsibility Report 2008
Transparency
We believe that being transparent about our support for patient groups helps build trust with our stakeholders, including the groups themselves.
We publish information on all our work with patient groups in our Europe and Asia Pacific, Japan and Emerging Markets regions, as well as information on our support for patient groups working globally, including details of the funding received. See details of our funding for patient organisations.
We were the first pharmaceutical company to publish this level of information and it goes beyond industry codes of practice that at most require a list of the groups funded.
Detailed information for GSK Australia and Canada can be found on their websites.
In the US, from February 2009 we will report educational and charitable grants provided to health-related organisations, including hospitals, teaching institutions and patient advocacy groups. The report will be updated quarterly.
See details of our funding for patient organisations
Working with patient groups
Our Standard Operating Procedures state that:
- Any involvement with a patient organisation must be declared and transparent
- GSK must neither seek patient organisation endorsement for its medicines, nor pay patient groups to endorse GSK services
- Medicines must not be promoted to patient organisations
- GSK must not create patient organisations, must not be the sole funding sponsor of a patient organisation, and should not provide more than 25 per cent funding to patient organisations. Exceptions may be allowed in the case of rare disease focus or start-up funding up to 50 per cent. However, must be agreed with directly with the local country or region general manager or head of regional government affairs
- GSK must not seek a direct return on investment from the funding of a patient organisation
- Any information on GSK pipeline compounds must be factual and non-promotional and provided to patient organisations as part of a scientific dialogue
- It is acceptable for GSK clinical trials or medical personnel to work with patient organisations to ensure optimal clinical trial recruitment, and to consult them on clinical trial design and protocols
- GSK must not directly sponsor patient organisation representatives to attend medical congresses, conferences and other healthcare professional events. Exceptions include where the representative is invited to speak at the conference or where the medical congress has a specific workstream designed for patients. GSK may sponsor representatives to attend non-medical congresses
- GSK may pay a modest honorarium or speaker fee to the patient organisation that an advisory board member or speaker represents
- Any third party working for GSK on a given project must be fully transparent about this relationship when interacting with a patient group on the project
Quick links
Print page
Add to My Report
Page Added to Report
Go to My Report
