GlaxoSmithKlineDistributing drugs to prevent parasitic diseases in GhanaGlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a multinational pharmaceutical company based in the United Kingdom, announced that it will make its strategy to protect the patents for its drugs more flexible. The idea is to end patent protection in roughly 50 very poor countries such as Afghanistan and Zambia so that local firms can freely manufacture drugs. In 35 other developing nations, the plan is to maintain intellectual property protection, but to facilitate licensing agreements that ensure that drugs will be sold at low prices. There will be no changes in developed or emerging countries that are among the world’s 20 largest economies, such as China, India and Brazil. The initiative is expected to have little impact on the company’s bottom line, since its sales in poor countries are limited, and it is evidence of the most recent effort by pharmaceutical industries to respond to criticisms that the products they sell in poor countries are very expensive. Other firms such as Merck KGaA and Roche have adopted similar policies. Andrew Witty, chief executive of GSK, told the journal Nature that his firm is also considering applying for patents for future cancer drugs under a United Nations program, the Medicine Patent Pool, which negotiates large-scale licensing agreements with manufacturers of generic drugs to distribute and produce drugs in over 100 countries.
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