Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline pledges cheap medicine for world's poor

[Bozita]

Source: Guardian UK

Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline pledges cheap medicine for world's poor
Head of GSK shocks industry with challenge to other 'big pharma' companies
Sarah Boseley, health editor
guardian.co.uk, Friday 13 February 2009 21.44 GMT
Article history

The world's second biggest pharmaceutical company is to radically shift its attitude to providing cheap drugs to millions of people in the developing world.

In a major change of strategy, the new head of GlaxoSmithKline, Andrew Witty, has told the Guardian he will slash prices on all medicines in the poorest countries, give back profits to be spent on hospitals and clinics and – most ground-breaking of all – share knowledge about potential drugs that are currently protected by patents.

Witty says he believes drug companies have an obligation to help the poor get treatment. He challenges other pharmaceutical giants to follow his lead.

Pressure on the industry has been growing over the past decade, triggered by the Aids catastrophe.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/13/glaxo-smith-kline-cheap-medicine

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. As I understand it, pharma companies sell expired drugs to poor countries at cheap prices

I don't trust corporations at all.

[BunkerHill24]

7. Your suspicion is warranted indeed

pharmaceutical companies exploit helpless victims of third world countries for the purpose of testing and marketing an experimental drugs. Pharmaceutical industry is no different than arms dealers.

[devilgrrl]

31. I was under the impression that they used poor countries to test their drugs on to begin with.

Who cares if people die as a result, right?

[No Elephants]

34. Every script med I ever get expires in a year. What a coincidence. The

expiration dates are often just another way to make more money. Making you get a refill when you could take what you already have in your medicine cabinet.

[truthisfreedom]

35. Many medicines are good far beyond their (sometimes arbitarary) shelf date.

Doesn't excuse risking lives, but it's a fact.

[wickerwoman]

36. Yep. And in China they feed them to pigs

so everyone gets a little extra at the supermarket.

[sandnsea]

2. Is he putting melamine in them?

What's the catch?

:scared:

[Sebastian Doyle]

4. Oh, that's an easy one.

The corrupt corporate health care system in this country makes them such an obscene profit that they can afford to give it away in other countries, in order to get good publicity for themselves.

[undeterred]

3. They've been ripping off migraine patients for years

with their exorbitant prices for imitrex. Stealing from the middle class to give to the poor.

[FatDave]

5. Does that include the poor in the US?

No, I guess not.

[The Hope Mobile]

17. I wondered that too. I guess that's not a popular enough cause at the moment.

[Orrex]

6. Does anyone see this as even a remotely, potentially good act?

Or must it bear the stench of evil because a tentacle of the Big Pharma monster is doing it?

Would it be ennobled if RFK Jr. secretly stole a warehouse full of drugs and gave them to developing countries for free?

[bobshin]

10. Nope.

Introducing drugs into a culture that needs nutritious food and potable water supplies before anything else is akin to mass murder.

[Posteritatis]

13. Annnnd that's the award for silliest equation of the day (nt)

[Lucky Luciano]

14. I was stunned too....interesting charcters turn up in these parts sometimes. nt

[The Hope Mobile]

18. They sure do pard'ner!

:wtf:

[Codeine]

26. Imbecilic nonsense.

Glaxo can't do shit about those issues; they can, however, ensure that life-saving medicines are available to those who desperately need them.

[arikara]

38. Agree totally

but be warned that questioning allopathic "wisdom" is not a popular sentiment with many here.

...and welcome to DU.

[JBear]

12. I do...

I understand all of the arguments against GSK and others. I happen to know someone who is leading the charge within GSK to get HIV education and HIV meds to all corners of this planet. I can honestly say that he personally is doing the right thing! He fights for his budget year after year and puts it all to good use.

:bounce:

[Donnachaidh]

15. It's a publicity stunt

They are facing a potential firestorm of extremely BAD publicity if Congress starts looking into the profits and their constant price-gouging of the American consumer. And that bad publicity will be watched around the world.

Looking to curry favor now by tossing coins out of their limousines. And you can be sure they will find a way to take their *philanthropy* off on taxes they pay somewhere in the world. The pharma cartels have a long history of playing philanthropist to the cameras, while working back room deals and trying to control markets (or medical schools) after the cameras are gone.

The pharma cartels do NOTHING *noble*. NOTHING.

[rollingrock]

21. You nailed it

Healthcare reform is going to be a major priority om the coming months, and these companies are going to be under the microscope.

[mattfromnossa]

40. You nailed it indeed.

the devil dabbles in philanthropy :evilgrin:

[The Hope Mobile]

16. Yes, the results are good even if the motivation may be a little suspect. eom

[oldnslo]

8. GSK is one of the greediest pharmas on the planet--if they're

offering anything cheap to another country, we're paying for it. They are highway robbers.

[rollingrock]

9. Sounds like a publicity stunt

they have been known use people in the third world as guinea pigs for developing their drugs.

[grilled onions]

11. This Country Never Counts

There isn't a single time when I hit the pharmacy where an elderly customer doesn't refuse to purchase their meds because they can't afford it. Today the elder gent could not afford the $200. If I had money to spare I would be right there trying to help these people.
It's not right that we have become second class citizens and companies seem to be more concerned with other countries while ignoring the elderly and sick right here in the U.S.

[northofdenali]

19. Uh. Huh.

Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are bidding on who gets to make the deliveries.

[jwirr]

20. Always ask "Why?" and listen with a sense of distrust to a Company

that says it is giving something away. What do they want?

[McCamy Taylor]

22. GSK plans to rip off third world countries.

This is how they announce it to their shareholders. Now that the US is poised for national healthcare, they have to make $$$ somewhere. It will be in India, Egypt, Mexico etc.

[sendero]

23. Does that include America?

Or is it just that they want to keep selling everything overseas cheaper than they do here?

[durablend]

24. They'll be jacking up prices here

To pay for all this generosity.

This you can count on...

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

33. They have to, every other country has price controls.

[kiranon]

37. Son's meds cost $500 and dtr's $1,400 for 3 month supply. US needs

to negotiate prices with the drug companies and need it now.

[Vinca]

25. A pre-emptive strike before healthcare reform.

Big pharma has a heart, big pharma has a heart. Who knew? Why, I'm rethinking my opinion of them as price gouging, drug pushing billionaires.:sarcasm:

[JohnnyCougar]

39. This is exactly what I was thinking.

[dipsydoodle]

27. Drug firm in developing world vow

Source: BBC News

The new chief executive of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline had said the company will cut prices for its drugs in the developing world.

Andrew Witty said GSK would cut the cost of drugs in the 50 poorest nations to 25% of price in the UK and US.

He also said the firm would share knowledge of patents and reinvest profits in local clinics.

Charities have long campaigned for such a policy as patents prevent cheaper generic versions of drugs.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7890757.stm

[thunder rising]

28. Blah blah blah and inject unwary/trusting people with malaria and typhiod and whatever else

[dipsydoodle]

29. As was the case

with the flawed Salk vaccine late fities / early sixties. Search SV-40 for details.

[BumRushDaShow]

30. How about cutting the prices here in the U.S. to 25% of what is charged?

[Hannah Bell]

32. "Loss leader". If they sell them at cost, they get the benefit of the local medical system using

them preferentially, & defusing opposition to patent monopolies. Later, when some of the competition is gone, they can raise prices.

If they give the profit to national hospitals, they get a seat on the hospital boards, etc.

The aim is always - more control over the global system.

there is no disinterested charity from corporations.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

41. This thread is filled with dumbasses.

Dumbasses who haven't done shit to help poor people in Africa get medicine.