Glaxo promises to give world’s poorest access to its top treatments
Friday, April 1, 2016
Sir Andrew Witty, the outgoing chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline, has unveiled plans to make the company’s latest drugs available to the world’s poorest people at a fraction of the commercial price.
The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant will no longer seek patents for medications launched in countries classified by the United Nations as ‘least developed’ or ‘low income’, Sir Andrew said, allowing generic drug makers free rein to manufacture and supply cheap, copycat versions of Glaxo’s latest medicines to the world’s most deprived countries.
The announcement comes ahead of a meeting of the UN’s high-level panel on access to medicines and is part of a wider drive by Glaxo to expand access to its drugs across the developing world.
Source: The Telegraph (link opens in a new window)
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