|
INTERVIEWEliminating Neglected Diseases In Poor Countries: A Conversation With Andrew Witty
PROLOGUE: GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, was formed in 2000 by the merger of GlaxoWellcome and SmithKline Beecham. It has long been among the most globally oriented of pharmaceutical companies; its former CEO, Jean-Pierre Garnier, frequently asserted that he had no intention of running a company whose sole business was selling pharmaceuticals only to the rich world. As a result, the company has participated in a variety of public-private efforts to advance health in poor countries, especially by tackling diseases ranging from polio to malaria. GSK has been part of a ground-breaking partnership, the Global Alliance to Eliminate LF, targeting lymphatic filariasis, the devastating infection that causes the grotesque swelling known as elephantiasis. GSK has donated more than one billion tablets of the drug albendazole to halt transmission of the disease-causing parasite and has helped facilitate elimination efforts in 48 countries. Another important GSK partnership with the Gates Foundation–funded PATH/Malaria Vaccine Initiative has led to the development of a new malaria vaccine, RTS,S, now entering Phase III trials in seven African nations. GSK’s current CEO, Andrew Witty, 44, who took the helm in May 2008, clearly shares the global perspective of his predecessors. He proposes a range of interventions to shore up health systems of developing countries and spur development of new interventions against neglected diseases. Citing a "market failure" to innovate adequately in this arena, he suggests creating a "least developed countries patent pool" for neglected tropical diseases—in effect, a mechanism by which pharmaceutical companies would make intellectual property available for free to researchers or developers pursuing treatments or preventive agents for these conditions. Witty also proposed opening up GSK’s research facility in Tres Cantos, Spain, to collaboration with researchers from other companies, governments, academic institutions, and nonprofit ventures. Health Affairs’ editor-in-chief, Susan Dentzer, sat down with Witty recently to discuss these and other initiatives. Excerpts of that interview follow.
Susan Dentzer: I could imagine two extremes of reactions to what you’ve proposed. One would come from shareholders who might say, "Who are you kidding?" Another reaction might be from skeptics saying, "This is just a company just trying to dress up its image." What’s really behind these ideas?
Andrew Witty:
I’m trying to focus on a very specific failure in the current system, which is the absence of innovations reaching patients for neglected diseases in the least developed countries. That’s different from the question of whether or not we can invent medicines for diseases in the West for which we can generate an Dentzer:Witty:Dentzer:Witty:
Dentzer:Witty:
Dentzer:Witty:Dentzer:Witty:
Dentzer:Witty:Dentzer:Witty:
Dentzer:Witty:Dentzer:Witty:Dentzer:Witty:Dentzer:Witty:
Dentzer:Witty: This article has been cited by other articles:
Comments:Read all Comments
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
