pogoism

If you’ve ever spoken to me about big pharma, you’ll know that I’m very passionate about the dodgy ethics of some of the industry. However, some recent announcements from GlaxoSmithKline suggest that this might be about to change…

Last week GSK, the world’s second largest pharmaceutical company, announced that they were setting up a voluntary patent pool in order to encourage third parties to develop drugs for often neglected diseases that affect the world’s poorest countries, such as malaria and cholera.

In my mind, this is a big step forward. Pharmaceutical companies, such as Pfizer, GSK, Bayer and Sanofi-Aventis are often accused of putting profits before patients. For instance, big pharma will often be deterred from developing treatments that cure diseases, opting instead to create drugs that treat symptoms over the long-term. Once a disease is eradicated in a patient, they have no need for a drug, and the company stops getting money. It’s encouraging to see companies such as GSK trying to address these big issues.

Another big criticism is that drug companies will focus on drugs that are barely changed from original treatments for common ailments such as heart disease and ignore diseases that have few treatments. The patent pool will stimulate universities and other labs to develop new treatments.

This wasn’t the only announcement to come from GSK last week:

• An end to experimentation on great apes. Said CEO Andrew Witty in an interview with The Guardian:

Society will accept a degree of experimentation with animals provided it has a purpose, provided there are no alternatives and provided it is done compassionately and humanely, but they trust us to shut the door behind us when we don’t need to do it any more.

• GSK will give 20% of their profits made in the 60 least developed countries back to invest in clinics and other infrastructure… though it’s worth noting that GSK only has operations in 18 of these and earns around £30 million from them.
• A willingness to negotiate on drug prices, such as in the UK with organizations such as the National Institute for Clinical Excellence who determine whether a drug is cost-effective for the NHS.
• Transparency in publishing clinical trial data - whether good or bad, GSK will publish it all.

The news has generally been hailed as a step in the right direction, but one disease that Witty ruled out from the patent pool is HIV, which, in 2007,  33.2 million people were estimated to be living with, and killed 2.1 million people [pdf]. Michelle Childs, director of policy and advocacy at Médecins sans Frontières said:

I recognise the fact that GSK is seeking to meet concerns… He is saying there is no need for a patent pool for HIV. Our position is that there is an urgent need for a patent pool for HIV because of the rising prices of new first and second line drugs for patients who develop resistance.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your comments on this subject.

You can read highlights of Andrew Witty’s speech to Harvard Medical School here [pdf].