Diseases of the developing world

Directing our R&D activities to reflect the needs of developing countries

As part of our response to this challenge we have established a dedicated drug discovery unit at Tres Cantos in Spain which focuses on malaria and tuberculosis. This campus links GSK scientists across the organisation including the UK and US. Research decisions are prioritised on their socio-economic and public health benefits rather than on commercial returns. A similar group is active in our vaccines organisation in Belgium.

Being more open with our relevant data and research

Our work in the treatment and prevention of malaria has used the web to share freely the data from our investigations into potential new treatments. In this way researchers outside of GSK are helping speed up the identification of the most useful compounds from the 13,500 with which our original, in-house malaria study started.

Welcoming partner organisations who share our values and want to work with us

In forming research alliances, we seek to work with organisations whose principles are aligned with our own. At Tres Cantos we have established an open lab project offering space for visiting scientists from universities, not-for-profit partnerships and other research institutes to come to the site, work on projects with us, learn from our expertise and share our world-class facilities.

Pursuing flexible pricing strategies

We operate a range of flexible pricing models to deliver our medicines and vaccines to as many of the people who need them as possible. For example, we have agreed that the price of our patented medicines in poorest countries will never be more than 25% of what we charge in developed countries. Since 2008 the Access to Medicines Foundation has twice ranked GSK No.1 in its global Access to Medicines Index.

Rethinking how we recoup our investment in particular treatments

A development such as our malaria vaccine candidate known as RTS,S, which is currently in late–stage clinical trials in several African countries, would have no market in developed countries to offset its R&D costs. This, if it proves successful, will bring tremendous health benefit but only in tropical countries where economies are not strong. We have therefore committed to achieving only a small return on this product of about 5% which we will fully reinvest in the development of next generation malaria vaccines or other treatments for diseases of the developing world.