GSK Partnering with Save the Children to Address AIDs in Africa
Last week in Kenya, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Save the Children announced they will be working together under a formal partnership agreement to support the more rapid development of pediatric pharmaceuticals.
GSK said in a press release that this was “an ambitious new partnership to save the lives of a million of the poorest children in the world”.Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of GSK noted that this kind of scale of partnership offers a unique potential to make a real difference in the efforts to develop innovative life-saving medicines. “By joining forces with Save the Children, we can amplify these efforts to create a new momentum for change and stop children dying from preventable diseases”.
Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children US observed: "In the past Save the Children may not have embarked on a collaboration with a pharmaceutical company like GSK. But we believe we can make huge gains for children if we harness the power of GSK's innovation, research and global reach”.
The partnership will see Save the Children involved in helping GSK to research and develop medicines for children, which includes a seat on a new pediatric R&D board to “accelerate progress on innovative life-saving interventions for under- fives, and to identify ways to ensure the widest possible access in the developing world”. It is designed to widen the access to vaccines in the poorest countries.
Flagship programmes will be run in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya, with the potential to expand into Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America countries.
This alliance may well inspire the beginning of a new kind of relationship between the pharma industry and NGOs. This unique collaboration will see the two organisations work together in a very different way, sharing expertise, resources, reach and influence to tackle some of the leading causes of childhood deaths.”I hope this partnership inspires GSK employees and sets a new standard for how companies and NGOs can work together towards a shared goal", said Witty.
However, not everyone sees this as such a positive move. The UK Guardian reported that this partnership “raises questions about Big Pharma and about the future direction of NGOs and development as a whole”, saying that charities and Big Pharma make for “uneasy bedfellows”.
Whilst it is obvious that the alliance between GSK and Save the Children is a positive and pragmatic one, do you feel it is the best way forward for the pharma industry?