Global health and health security

We have a unique and important role to play in improving health for patients around the world and helping the world to prepare for future health security challenges. Actions on these will support growth, build trust with our stakeholders, help us attract and retain outstanding people, reduce risk and enable delivery of positive social impact.

Lab worker examining a blue vial

Our ambition

We have a unique and important role to play in improving health for patients around the world and helping the world prepare for future health security challenges. Actions on these will support growth, build trust with our stakeholders, help us attract and retain outstanding people, reduce risk and enable delivery of positive social impact.

Hundreds of millions of people around the world live with unmet health needs. Using our science, our partnerships, and the knowledge we’ve gained from addressing the world’s biggest health challenges, we want to help change this.

Our commitment to improving our global health impact through R&D for infectious diseases and access to medicines and vaccines has been recognised in the Access to Medicine Index, where we have ranked number one in all eight waves since its inception.

Our ambition is contingent on reaching people all around the globe with the products they need to thrive and prosper, and by helping the global community to better prepare for emerging health security threats and challenges.

How we’re getting Ahead Together for global health

We have a dedicated Global Health team of more than 200 outstanding people. In 2022, with ViiV Healthcare, we announced an investment of £1 billion over 10 years to accelerate global health R&D. By the end of 2023, we had invested 21% and progressed 11 Global Health pipeline assets to address priority WHO diseases, including climate aggravated diseases that disproportionately affect lower income countries.

 

Global health

Preparing for future health challenges

We are using our scientific know-how and partnerships to help the world better prepare for future health challenges, such as disease outbreaks with pandemic potential and antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Without action on AMR 10 million people could die from drug-resistant infections every year by 2050. That’s why we have more than 30 R&D projects across medicines and vaccines that are relevant to AMR, ranging from early- to late-stage development. 12 of these projects target pathogens deemed ‘critical’ or ‘urgent’ by the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We’re also working with governments, NGOs and other stakeholders to bolster future pandemic responses, strengthen efforts to get ahead of AMR and build more resilient healthcare systems able to cope with health security challenges.

 

Health security